LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

GIKT  OF" 

Qultf.    JAlJ, &>. /3±tJsrbi 

Received  ,  190 

Accession  No.        o/wbt)  /  .    Class  No. 


HISTORICAL  EVIDENCES 


OF  THE 


OLD  TESTAMENT. 


AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

150  NASSAU    STREET,    NEW  YORK. 


*0 

V 


CONTENTS. 


The  Witness  of  Ancient  Monuments  to  the  Old  Testament 

Scriptures.     By  A.  H.  Sayce,  M.  A 5 

The  Vitality  of  the  Bible.   By  Rev.  W.  G.  Blaikie,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.    57 

Present  State  of  the  Christian  Argument  from  Prophecy.     By 

Principal  Cairns,  D.  D.,  LL.  D in 

The  Origin  of   the    Hebrew   Religion.      An  Inquiry  and  an 

Argument.     By  Rev.  Eustace  R.  Conder,  D.  D. 179 

The  Bible  Tested ;  or,  Is  it  the  Book  for  To-day  and  for  the 

World?     By  Jacob  Chamberlain,  M.  D.,  D.  D 235 

The  Old  Testament  Vindicated.     By  Rev.  T.  W.  Chambers, 

D.  D 283 


8269 


.-.. 


THE  WITNESS 


OF 


ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 


TO   THE 


OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES. 


BY 

A.  H.  SAYCE,  M.  A., 

AUTHOR  OF  "FRESH  LIGHT  FROM  THE  MONUMENTS,"  "ASSYRIAN 
GRAMMAR,"  ETC. 


ARGUMENT  OF  THE  TRACT. 


THE  credibility  of  Scripture  has  been  assailed  since  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century  on  the  ground  that  the  narra- 
tives contained  in  it  are  not  contemporaneous  with  the  events 
they  profess  to  record,  i,  because  they  represent  an  incredi- 
ble amount  of  civilization  as  existing  in  the  ancient  Eastern 
world,  and  are  inconsistent  with  the  accounts  of  classical  wri- 
ters ;  and,  2,  because  writing  was  little  known  or  practised  by 
the  Jews  at  so  early  a  period.  It  is  shown  that  both  these  ar- 
guments are  overthrown  by  the  discovery  and  decipherment 
of  the  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt  and  Western  Asia,  which 
prove  the  minute  accuracy  of  the  Biblical  accounts  and  the 
prevalence  of  books  and  readers  in  early  times. 

Wherever  the  Biblical  history  comes  into  contact  with  that 
of  its  powerful  neighbors,  and  can  thus  be  tested  by  the  con- 
temporaneous monuments  of  Egypt  and  Assyro-Babylonia, 
it  is  confirmed  and  illustrated  even  in  the  smallest  details. 
Typical  examples  of  this  are  taken  from  the  monuments  of 
Babylonia,  Egypt,  and  Assyria.  The  extraordinary  fidelity 
of  the  Biblical  narrative  to  facts  which  had  been  utterly  for- 
gotten long  before  the  classical  era  is  further  illustrated  by 
the  recovery  of  the  great  Hittite  Empire,  to  which  there  are 
hitherto  unsuspected  allusions  in  the  Old  Testament. 

The  discovery  of  the  Moabite  Stone,  and  more  especially 
the  Siloam  inscription,  prove  that  the  Jews  in  the  age  of  the 
Kings  were  well  acquainted  with  the  art  of  writing  on  parch- 
ment or  papyrus.  And  since  the  Babylonians  possessed  libra- 
ries, and  were  a  literary  people,  there  is  no  reason  why  Abra- 
ham and  his  descendants  should  not  also  have  been  able  to 
read  or  write. 

Modern  exploration  and  research,  consequently,  have 
shown,  i,  that  the  picture  of  Oriental  history  presented  in  the 
Old  Testament  is  strictly  consonant  with  the  facts  wherever 
it  can  be  tested  by  contemporaneous  monuments ;  and,  2,  that 
the  art  of  writing  was  practised  by  the  Israelites  at  an  early 
date.  Hence  the  argument  against  the  contemporary  char- 
acter of  the  Old  Testament  records  falls  to  the  ground,  and 
with  it  the  argument  against  their  historical  credibility.  This, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  confirmed  by  their  agreement  in  details 
with  the  contents  of  the  inscriptions. 


WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 


TO  THE 


OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES. 


EVER  since  the  beginning  of  the  present  cen- 
tury the  historical  credibility  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  has  been  bitterly  assailed.  The 
methods  that  have  been  employed  for  resolving 
the  earlier  history  of  Greece  and  Rome  into  myth 
and  legend  have  been  turned  against  the  ancient 
history  of  the  Jewish  race.  Every  effort  has  been 
made  to  show  that  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  a  farrago  of  documents  and  interpola- 
tions of  various  ages,  few  of  which,  however,  are 
contemporaneous  with  the  events  they  profess  to 
record.  The  events  themselves  have  been  treated 
as  the  products  of  distorted  tradition  or  romance, 
or  else  assigned  a  purely  mythical  origin.  Che- 
dorlaomer  and  his  allies  have  been  transformed 
into  solar  heroes,  the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob  into 


8       THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

the  twelve  zodiacal  signs,  and  the  conquest  of 
Canaan  by  Joshua  into  the  daily  struggle  of  night 
and  dawn.  This  skeptical  criticism  has  rested  on 
two  main  assumptions:  firstly,  that  writing  was 
unknown  or  but  little  used  in  Palestine  until 
shortly  before  the  Babylonish  Exile ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, that  the  notices  of  foreign  countries  in  the 
Old  Testament  implied  an  inconceivable  amount 
of  civilization  in  the  ancient  Hast,  and  were  in- 
consistent with  the  accounts  handed  down  by 
classical  historians. 

The  same  half-century,  however,  which  has 
witnessed  these  assaults  on  the  Old  Testament 
has  also  witnessed  the  discovery  and  decipher- 
ment of  monuments  which  belong  to  Old  Testa- 
ment times.  At  the  very  moment  when  the  as- 
sailants of  Scripture  had  adopted  new  methods  of 
attack  which  could  no  longer  be  met  by  the  old 
modes  of  defence,  God  \vas  raising  up  unexpected 
testimonies  to  the  truth  of  Biblical  history.  The 
ancient  civilizations  of  Egypt,  of  Babylonia,  and 
of  Assyria  now  lie  outspread  before  us  as  fully 
and  clearly  as  the  civilization  of  imperial  Rome. 
Sennacherib  and  Tiglath-pileser,  Nebuchadnez- 
zar and  Cyrus,  speak  to  us,  as  it  wrere,  face  to  face, 
and  tell  us  in  their  own  words  the  story  of  the 
deeds  in  which  they  themselves  took  part ;  and 
we  can  trace  the  very  forms  of  the  letters  in  which 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.         9 

Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  recorded  their  prophecies. 
The  stones  have  cried  out  on  behalf  of  the  "ora- 
cles of  God,"  and  have  shown  that  the  pictures 
of  ancient  history  given  in  the  old  Testament  are 
such  as  only  contemporaries  could  have  drawn, 
and  that  books  and  the  art  of  writing  were  almost 
as  well  known  to  the  age  of  He^ekiah  as  they  are 
to  the  England  of  to-day. 

To  prove  this  we  will  first  take  a  few  typical 
examples  from  the  monuments  of  the  chief  na- 
tions of  the  ancient  Bast  which  illustrate  the  lead- 
ing periods  of  Old  Testament  history,  and  then 
point  out  how  utterly  mistaken  is  the  idea  that 
the  people  over  whom  David  and  Hezekiah  ruled 
were  illiterate. 

The  fourteenth  chapter  of  Genesis  contains  an 
account  of  an  expedition  against  Palestine  made 
by  Chedorlaonier,  king  of  Elam,  and  his  allies, 
one  of  whom  was  Amraphel,  king  of  Shinar,  or 
Southern  Babylonia.  The  account  has  been  con- 
demned as  unhistorical,  partly  because  a  Babylo- 
nian campaign  against  a  distant  country  like 
Palestine  was  held  to  be  incredible  at  so  early  a 
period,  partly  because  a  king  of  Blam  appears  as 
leader  of  the  invading  army.  But  recent  discov- 
eries have  shown  that  the  whole  account  is  in 
strict  accordance  with  the  actual  fact.  lyong  be- 
fore the  days  of  Abraham  we  find  from  the  nion- 


10     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

uments  that  the  Babylonian  kings  carried  their 
arms  as  far  as  Palestine,  and  even  crossed  over 
into  the  island  of  Cyprus,  while  one  of  them 
claims  to  have  conquered  the  Sinaitic  Peninsula. 
At  the  period,  moreover,  to  which  we  must  refer 
the  life  of  Abraham,  Babylonia  was  in  subjection 
to  Blam,  and  was  divided  into  two  States,  the 
southern  of  which  was  called  Sumer  or  Shinar. 
The  very  name  of  Chedorlaomer  can  be  shown  to 
be  of  Elamite  origin.  Lagamar  was  an  Blamite 
deity,  and  Kudur  (or  chedor\  in  the  language  of 
Elam,  meant  "servant."  Bricks  are  now  in  the 
British  Museum  stamped  with  the  inscriptions  of 
another  Klamite  prince,  Kudur-Mabuk,  u  the  ser- 
vant of  Mabuk,"  whose  name  is  formed  precisely 
the  same  way  as  that  of  Chedor-laomer.  From 
these  we  learn  that  he  had  conquered  Babylonia, 
and  that  his  son  Eri-Aku  ruled  at  Larsa.  Now 
Eri-Aku  is  letter  for  letter  the  same  name  as  Ari- 
och,  and  L,arsa  may  be  identified  with  Ellasar, 
the  city  of  which  we  are  told  in  Genesis  that  Ari- 
och  was  king.  Here,  therefore,  where  the  book 
of  Genesis  touches  upon  Babylonian  history,  con- 
temporaneous monuments  prove  that  its  state- 
ments are  faithful  to  the  most  minute  details. 

Just  as  the  life  of  Abraham  touches  upon  Bab- 
ylonian history,  so  the  Exodus  brings  us  into  con- 
tact with  Egyptian  history.  The  expulsion  of 


TO  THE)  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.        II 

the  Hyksos  or  Shepherd  kings,  in  whose  time  the 
children  of  Israel  had  come  into  Egypt,  brought 
with  it  the  rise  of  a  new  king,  u  who  knew  not 
Joseph,"  and  of  a  dynasty  hostile  to  all  those  who 
had  been  favored  by  the  Hyksos  princes,  or  were 
of  Asiatic  origin.  The  oppression  culminated  in 
the  long  reign  of  Rameses  II. ,  for  whom  the  Israel- 
ites built  the  cities  of  Raamses  and  Pithom.  Dr. 
Brugsch  has  shown  that  the  city  of  Rameses,  or 
Raamses,  was  the  name  given  to  Zoan  or  Tanis, 
the  old  capital  of  the  Hyksos,  after  its  reconstruc- 
tion by  Rameses  II.,  and  the  city  of  Pithom  was 
discovered  only  two  years  ago  in  the  mounds  of 
Tel  el-Maskhuta.  Tel  el-Maskhuta  is  near  the 
now  famous  site  of  Tel  el-Kebir,  and  was  called 
Pa-Turn,  the  city  of  "  the  Setting  Sun,"  by  the 
Egyptians.  Inscriptions  found  on  the  spot  prove 
that  it  was  built  by  Rameses  II.,  and  was  intend- 
ed for  a  "  storehouse ' '  of  corn  or  treasure.  The 
store-chambers  themselves  have  been  laid  bare. 
They  are  very  strongly  constructed,  and  are  di- 
vided by  partitions  from  eight  to  ten  feet  thick. 
The  bricks,  like  most  of  those  found  in  Egypt, 
have  been  baked  in  the  sun,  some  of  them  being 
mixed  with  straw,  and  others  not.  As  the  dis- 
coverer, M.  Naville,  has  observed,  we  may  see  in 
these  strawless  bricks  the  work  of  the  oppressed 
people  when  the  order  came:  "Thus  saith  the 


12     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

Pharaoh,  I  -will  not  give  you  straw."  The  Pha- 
raoh of  the  Exodus,  however,  must  have  been  the 
son  of  Rameses,  Meneptah  II. ,  whose  reign  lasted 
but  a  short  time.  It  was  full  of  trouble  and  dis- 
aster. In  his  fifth  year  Northern  Egypt  was  over- 
run and  devastated  by  a  great  invasion  of  the 
Libyans,  which  was  with  difficulty  repulsed ; 
while  three  years  later  a  body  of  Bedouins  made 
its  way  from  Edom  to  the  land  of  Goshen  along 
part  of  the  very  road  which  the  Israelites  must 
have  traversed.  The  official  report  of  the  migra- 
tion states  that  they  had  passed  ' '  through  the 
fortress  of  Khetam,  which  is  situated  in  Thuku 
(or  Succoth),  to  the  lakes  of  the  city  of  Pithom, 
which  are  in  the  land  of  Succoth,  in  order  that 
they  might  feed  themselves  and  their  herds  on 
•the  possessions  of  the  Pharaoh."  Khetam  seems 
to  be  the  Etham  of  Scripture.  Exod.  13  :  20. 

As  Egypt  declined,  the  kingdom  of  Assyria 
grew  in  power ;  and  it  was  with  Assyria  rather 
than  with  Egypt  that  later  Israelitish  history  had 
to  do.  Illustrations  and  confirmations  of  Holy 
Writ  have  poured  in  abundantly  upon  us  during 
the  last  few  years  from  the  mounds  and  ruins  of 
Assyria,  and  more  especially  from  the  sculptured 
stones  and  clay  books  of  the  Assyrian  capital, 
Nineveh.  At  first  it  was  objected  that  the  system 
of  interpreting  the  Assyrian  monuments  could 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.        13 

not  be  correct,  since  "they  would  never  have  so 
largely  concerned  themselves,  as  they  were  rep- 
resented as  doing,  with  a  petty  and  obscure  king- 
dom like  that  of  Judah;"  but  now  that  no  doubt 
any  longer  hangs  over  the  decipherment  of  the 
inscriptions,  it  is  found  that  they  "concerned 
themselves"  with  Judah  and  Israel  even  more 
than  was  originally  suspected.  From  the  time  of 
Jehu  downwards  the  Assyrian  kings  were  brought 
into  frequent  contact  and  intercourse  with  the 
people  of  Samaria  and  Jerusalem ;  and  the  records 
they  have  left  us  not  only  confirm  the  statements 
of  the  Old  Testament,  but  also  throw  light  on 
many  passages  which  have  hitherto  been  ob- 
scure. 

"  Akhabbu  of  Sirla,"  or  Ahab  of  Israel,  is  the 
first  king  of  Samaria  mentioned  in  the  Assyrian 
texts.  He  brought  2,000  chariots  and  10,000 
men  to  the  help  of  Hadadezer,  or  Ben-hadad  II., 
of  Damascus,  and  his  allies,  in  a  great  battle 
against  the  Assyrians  at  Karkar  or  Aroer.  This 
battle  must  have  taken  place  shortly  before  his 
death  and  after  the  conclusion  of  the  alliance  be- 
tween Ahab  and  Ben-hadad  which  is  recorded  in 
i  Kings  20:34.  Hadadezer's  successor  was  Kha- 
zail,  or  Ha^ael,  according  to  the  Bible  as  well  as 
the  Assyrian  monuments.  Hazael  was  defeated 
by  the  Assyrian  monarch,  who,  after  a  vain  at- 


14       WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

tempt  to  capture  Damascus,  marched  to  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  there  received 
the  tribute  of  u  Yahua,  the  son  of  Khumri." 
Yahua  is  Jehu,  and  Khumri  Omri,  though  in 
calling  Jehu  his  son  the  Assyrians  were  misin- 
formed, as  he  was  only  Omri's  successor.  Omri, 
however,  had  been  the  founder  of  Samaria,  which 
is  frequently  termed  Beth-omri,  or  "House  of 
Omri,"  in  the  inscriptions,  and  any  prince  who 
came  after  him  might  well  be  supposed  by  a 
stranger  to  have  been  his  descendant.  The  trib- 
ute-bearers of  Jehu  can  still  be  seen  sculptured 
on  a  small  black  obelisk  brought  from  the  ruins 
of  Calah  by  Sir  A.  H.  Layard,  and  now  in  the 
British  Museum.  They  carry  with  them  bars  of 
gold  and  silver,  a  golden  vase  and  a  golden  spoon, 
besides  cups  and  goblets  of  gold,  pieces  of  lead,  a 
sceptre,  and  precious  woods.  Their  features  are 
those  which  even  now  characterize  the  Jewish 
race,  and  their  fringed  robes  descend  to  their  an- 
kles. 

After  the  time  of  Jehu  the  Assyrian  monu- 
ments are  silent  for  some  time  about  affairs  in 
the  West.  Rimmon-nirari,  however,  a  king  who 
reigned  from  B.  C.  810  to  781,  reduced  Damascus 
to  a  condition  of  vassalage,  and  thus  prevented  it 
for  a  time  from  being  dangerous  to  its  neighbors. 
This  explains  the  successes  of  Jeroboam  II. 


TO  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   SCRIPTURES.       15 

against  the  Syrians.  He  was  a  contemporary  of 
Rimmon-nirari,  and  "restored  the  coast  of  Israel 
from  the  entering  of  Hamath  unto  the  sea  of  the 
plain,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  God  of 
Israel,  which  he  spake  by  the  hand  of  his  ser- 
vant Jonah,  which  was  of  Gath-hepher. "  3 
Kings  14:25. 

The  dynasty  to  which  'Rimmon-nirari  be- 
longed was  overthrown  by  a  rebellion  at  the  head 
of  which  was  a  military  adventurer  named  Pul, 
who  usurped  the  throne  under  the  name  of  Tig- 
lath-pileser  II.,  in  April,  B.  C.  745.  He  founded 
the  second  Assyrian  Empire,  and  introduced  a 
new  system  of  policy  into  the  East.  He  and  his 
successors  aimed  at  uniting  the  whole  of  Western 
Asia  into  a  single  State.  For  this  purpose  they 
not  only  made  extensive  conquests,  but  also  or- 
ganized and  consolidated  them  under  governors 
appointed  by  the  Assyrian  king.  Hence  it  is 
that  from  this  time  forward  Palestine  was  ex- 
posed to  continual  attacks  on  the  part  of  Assyria. 
Its  princes  were  made  tributary,  and  when  they 
attempted  to  rebel  were  punished  with  death  or 
exile  and  the  captivity  of  their  people.  Tiglath- 
pileser  is  the  first  Assyrian  monarch  mentioned 
in  the  Old  Testament,  because,  as  we  now  learn 
from  the  monuments,  he  was  the  first  who  led  his 
armies  against  the  Israelites. 


l6     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

According  to  2  Kings  15:29,  "In  the  days  of 
Pekah,  king  of  Israel,  came  Tiglath-pileser,  king 
of  Assyria,  and  took  Ijon  and  Abel-beth-maachah 
and  Janoah  and  Kedesh  and  Hazor  and  Gilead 
and  Galilee,  all  the  land  of  Naphtali,  and  carried 
them  captive  to  Assyria." 

Tiglath-pileser,  on  his  side,  tells  us  in  an  in- 
scription, which  is  unfortunately  much  mutilated, 
that  in  his  eleventh  year,  B.  C.  734,  he  marched 
against  the  West;  and,  after  overrunning  some  of 
the  Phoenician  States,  captured  the  towns  of  Gil- 
ead  and  Abel-beth-maachah,  "which  belonged  to 
the  land  of  Beth-omri,"  and  annexed  the  whole 
district  to  Assyria,  setting  Assyrian  governors 
over  it.  He  then  goes  on  to  describe  his  con- 
quest of  Gaza,  and  adds,  ' '  Some  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  land  of  Beth-omri,  with  their  goods,  I 
carried  to  Assyria.  Pekah,  their  king,'  I  put  to 
death;  I  raised  Hosea  to  the  sovereignty  over 
them."  This  shows  that  the  conspiracy  against 
Pekah  described  in  2  Kings  15:30  was  carried 
out  under  the  protection  and  with  the  help  of  the 
Assyrian  king. 

Tiglath-pileser,  under  his  original  name  of 
Pul,  had  already  made  himself  known  to  the 
Israelites.  Menahem  had  become  his  tributary 
and  had  given  him  ".a  thousand  talents  of  silver, 
that  his  hand  might  be  with  him  to  confirm  the 


TO  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT   SCRIPTURES.       \J 

kingdom  in  his  hand."  2  Kings  15:19.  This 
event  also  is  referred  to  by  Tiglath-pileser  in  his 
annals,  where  he  states  that  in  B.  C.  739  he  re- 
ceived tribute  from  "Menahem  of  Samaria"  and 
"Rezin  of  Damascus." 

Resin  was  the  last  king  of  Damascus.  Isaiah 
had  prophesied  that  Damascus  and  its  sovereign 
should  speedily  fall,  and  in  2  Kings  16  we  are 
told  how  this  came  about.  Aim,  attacked  by  the 
confederate  armies  of  Pekah  and  Resin,  called  in 
the  powerful  aid  of  Tiglath-pileser,  and  purchased 
his  assistance  with  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  tem- 
ple and  the  royal  palace.  Then  uthe  king  of 
Assyria  went  up  against  Damascus,  and  took  it, 
and  carried  the  people  of  it  captive  to  Kir,  and 
slew  Resin."  We  can  now  read  the  history  of 
the  campaign  at  greater  length  on  the  monuments 
of  the  Assyrian  king  himself.  After  receiving 
the  Jewish  bribe,  we  learn  that  he  marched  into 
Syria  in  B.  C.  734.  Resin  was  defeated  in  bat- 
tle, his  chariots  destroyed,  his  officers  captured 
and  impaled,  while  he  himself  escaped  to  Damas- 
cus, where  he  was  closely  besieged.  The  Syrian 
territory  was  swept  with  fire  and  sword,  the  six- 
teen districts  into  which  it  was  divided  were 
"overwhelmed  as  with  a  flood,"  and  the  beauti- 
ful trees  and  gardens  surrounding  the  town  were 
cut  down  and  destroyed.  Damascus,  however, 


1 8     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

proved  too  strong  to  be  taken  by  assault;  so  leav- 
ing a  force  before  it  to  reduce  it  by  famine, 
Tiglath-pileser  overran  the  northern  part  of  Isra- 
el, and,  as  we  have  seen,  carried  away  the  inhab- 
itants of  Gilead  and  Naphtali.  He  then  entered 
Samaria,  and  placed  Hosea  on  the  throne;  and 
subsequently  returned  to  Damascus,  which  fell  in 
B.  C.  732,  after  a  siege  of  two  years.  Rezin  was 
put  to  death  and  a  great  court  held,  at  which  the 
subject  princes  of  the  neighboring  countries  pre- 
sented themselves  with  gifts.  Among  them  was 
Jehoahaz  of  Judah,  whom  the  Biblical  writers 
call  Ahas,  omitting  the  sacred  name  of  the  God 
of  Israel  from  the  name  of  a  king  who  was  un- 
worthy to  bear  it.  It  was  when  Ahaz  was  at 
Damascus  that  he  saw  the  altar  the  pattern  of 
which  he  sent  to  Urijah  the  priest. 

Not  the  least  of  the  services  rendered  to  stu- 
dents of  the  Old  Testament  by  the  decipherment 
of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  is  the  restoration  of 
the  true  chronology  of  the  Israelite  and  Jewish 
kings.  As  is  well  known,  this  chronology  has 
long  been  the  despair  of  historians,  and  the  most 
contradictory  schemes  for  reducing  it  to  order 
have  been  confidently  put  forward.  The  Assyri- 
ans reckoned  time  by  the  names  of  certain  officers 
w4io  were  changed  from  year  to  year,  and  corre- 
sponded with  the  eponymous  archons  of  ancient 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.        IQ 

Athens.  Lists  of  these  Assyrian  officers  have 
been  preserved,  extending  from  B.  C.  909  to  the 
closing  days  of  the  monarchy,  and  we  can  thus 
accurately  fix  the  dates  of  the  various  events 
which  marked  the  terms  of  office  of  the  successive 
eponymes.  In  this  way  some  difficulties  which 
formerly  obscured  the  chronology  of  the  books  of 
Kings  may  be  cleared  away. 

Tiglath-pileser  died,  it  appears,  B.  C.  727,  and 
the  crown  was  usurped  by  Elulseos,  who  took  the 
name  of  Shalmaneser  IV.  He  carried  Hosea 
into  captivity  and  laid  siege  to  Samaria,  as  we 
are  told  in  the  Bible.  "The  king  of  Assyria, " 
however,  who  actually  captured  Samaria  was 
not  Shalmaneser,  but  his  successor  Sargon,  who 
seized  the  throne  after  Shalmaneser' s  death,  ap- 
parently B.  C.  722.  Immediately  afterwards 
Samaria  fell;  and  Sargon  informs  us  that  27,280 
of  its  inhabitants  were  sent  into  exile,  and  an 
Assyrian  governor  set  over  it  who  was  ordered 
to  raise  each  year  the  same  amount  of  tribute  as 
that  which  had  been  paid  by  Hosea.  The  small 
number  of  persons  carried  captive  shows  that 
only  the  upper  classes  were  transported  from 
their  homes,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Jews  who 
were  carried  captive  by  Nebuchadnezzar  along 
with  Jehoiachin;  the  poorer  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation, who  were  not  considered  responsible  for 


20    THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

the  revolt  from  Assyria,  being  allowed  to  remain. 
The  exiles  were  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Habor 
or  Khabur,  a  river  which  falls  into  the  Euphra- 
tes, and  flows  from  a  country  called  Gozan  by  the 
Assyrians,  as  well  as  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes. 
These  had  been  conquered  by  Sargon,  and  their 
old  inhabitants  sent  elsewhere. 

Sargon' s  name  occurs  but  once  in  the  Old 
Testament,  Isa.  20:1,  and  as  no  trace  of  it  could 
be  found  in  classical  writers  it  was  objected  to  as 
fictitious.  Now,  however,  we  find  that  Sargon, 
the  father  of  Sennacherib,  was  one  of  the  greatest 
monarchs  who  ever  ruled  over  Assyria,  and  that 
his  reign  lasted  as  long  as  seventeen  years.  The 
event  referred  to  by  Isaiah,  when  the  Tartan  or 
commander-in-chief  was  ordered  to  invest  Ash- 
dod,  is  recorded  in  Sargon' s  annals,  and  formed 
part  of  the  history  of  a  campaign  which  has 
thrown  new  and  unexpected  light  upon  certain 
passages  of  Scripture. 

The  prophecy  contained  in  the  tenth  chapter 
of  Isaiah  has  been  alleged  to  be  contrary  to  fact 
and  to  have  never  been  fulfilled.  When  Sen- 
nacherib invaded  Judaea  he  did  not  march  upon 
Jerusalem  from  the  northeast,  as  Isaiah  describes 
the  Assyrians  as  doing,  but  from  the  southwest; 
while  Jerusalem  was  not  captured,  as  Isaiah  im- 
plies would  be  the  case.  Indeed  the  whole  spirit 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       21 

of  the  prophecy  delivered  by  Isaiah  when  Sen- 
nacherib threatened  the  city,  Isa.  37,  is  in  stri- 
king contrast  to  that  contained  in  the  tenth  chap- 
ter. If  we  turn  to  another  prophecy,  Isa.  22,  we 
shall  find  a  picture  placed  before  our  eyes  which 
is  even  more  inconsistent  with  what  we  know 
about  the  campaign  of  Sennacherib.  Here  Jeru- 
salem is  described  as  being  worn  out  with  a  long 
siege;  its  defenders  are  dying  of  famine;  the  As- 
syrians are  at  its  gates;  and  the  prophet  declares 
that  it  is  about  to  fall.  As  long  as  it  was  thought 
necessary  to  refer  these  prophecies  to  the  invasion 
of  Sennacherib,  they  were  hopelessly  irreconcila- 
ble with  the  real  facts. 

But  all  difficulties  have  now  been  removed 
and  the  accuracy  of  Scripture  thoroughly  vindi- 
cated. We  gather  from  the  Assyrian  monuments 
that  ten  years  before  the  invasion  of  Judah  by 
Sennacherib  there  had  been  a  previous  invasion 
by  his  father  Sargon.  A  Chaldaean  chief  named 
Merodach-baladan  had  made  himself  king  of 
Babylon  on  the  death  of  Shalmaneser,  and  suc- 
ceeded for  some  years  in  maintaining  himself 
against  his  dangerous  neighbor,  the  Assyrian 
king.  As  Sargon,  however,  became  more  and 
more  powerful,  Merodach-baladan  began  to  make 
endeavors  to  form  a  vast  league  against  him. 
Ambassadors  were  sent  for  the  purpose  to  Elam 


22     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

on  the  east,  and  to  Egypt,  Judah,  and  other  Syr- 
ian States  on  the  west.  We  learn  from  the  Bible 
that  Hezekiah's  recent  recovery  from  illness 
formed  the  pretext  for  their  visit  to  him.  The 
league  was  formed;  but  before  its  members  had 
time  to  act  in  concert  Sargon  became  aware  of 
it,  and  at  once  inarched  against  Palestine.  * '  Tlie 
widespreading  land  of  Judah ;)  was  overrun  and 
its  capital  taken ;  Ashdod,  which  had  been  a  cen- 
tre of  disaffection,  was  razed  to  the  ground,  the 
Moabites  and  Edomites  were  punished,  and  the 
Egyptian  king  was  prevented  from  coming  to  the 
help  of  his  allies.  It  was  this  invasion  of  Judah 
and  this  capture  of  Jerusalem  to  which  Isaiah  re- 
fers in  the  tenth  and  twenty-second  chapters  of 
his  prophecies;  and  the  Biblical  statements  are 
thr;s  shown  to  be  an  exact  representation  of  the 
actual  facts.  In  the  following  year  (B.  C.  710) 
Sargon  turned  upon  Merodach  -  baladan.  The 
Elamites  were  defeated,  Babylon  was  taken,  and 
the  Chaldaean  prince  driven  to  the  marshes  at  the 
head  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  while  Sargon  pro- 
claimed himself  king  of  Babylonia. 

Sargon  was  murdered  by  his  soldiers,  and  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Sennacherib,  who  mounted 
the  throne  on  the  i2th  of  Ab  or  July,  B.  C.  705. 
Trusting  to  the  support  of  Tirhakah,  the  Ethio- 
pian king  of  Egypt,  Hezekiah  threw  off  his  alle- 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       23 

giance  to  Assyria,  and  was  followed  in  this  act 
by  the  Phoenicians  and  other  neighboring  States. 
It  was  not  until  B.  C.  701,  the  fourth  year  of  his 
reign,  that  Sennacherib  found  himself  free  to 
punish  the  rebels.  Then  came  that  memorable 
campaign  the  latter  part  of  which  is  described  in 
such  detail  by  Isaiah  and  in  the  second  book  of 
Kings,  and  which  ended  so  disastrously  for  the 
vainglorious  Assyrian  king.  An  account  of  it  is 
given  with  almost  equal  detail  by  Sennacherib 
himself,  though  the  final  disaster  is  naturally 
glossed  over,  and  only  the  earlier  successes  of  the 
expedition  recorded.  More  than  one  version  of 
the  account  has  been  found  among  the  clay  books 
of  Nineveh,  Here  is  the  translation  of  one  of 
them : 

"  In  my  third  campaign  I  went  to  the  land  of 
the  Hittites.  The  fear  of  the  greatness  of  my 
majesty  overwhelmed  Klulseos,  king  of  Sidon, 
and  he  fled  afar  in  the  middle  of  the  sea  (i.  e.,  to 
Cyprus),  and  his  land  I  subjected.  As  for  Great 
Sidon  and  L,ittle  Sidon,  Beth-Zeth,  Sarepta, 
Makhallib,  Usu,  Ekdippa,  and  Akko  (Acre),  his 
strong  cities,  the  fenced-in  fortresses  and  villages, 
the  barracks  of  his  troops,  the  fear  of  the  weapons 
of  Assur,  my  lord,  overwhelmed  them,  and  they 
knelt  at  my  feet.  I  set  Ethbaal  on  the  royal 
throne  over  them,  and  laid  upon  him  the  tribute 


24     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

and  taxes  due  to  my  majesty  each  year  for  ever. 
Menahem  of  Samsi-mnrun,  Ethbaal  of  Sidon, 
Abdilihti  of  Arvad,  Uru-melech  of  Gebal,  Me- 
tinti  of  Ashdod,  Fedael  of  Ammon,  Chemosh-na- 
dab  of  Moab,  Melech-ram  of  Edom,  all  the  kings 
of  the  west,  brought  the  full  amount  of  their  rich 
gifts  and  treasures  to  my  presence  and  kissed  my 
feet.  But  Zedekiah,  king  of  Ashkelon,  who  had 
not  submitted  to  my  yoke,  himself,  the  gods  of 
the  house  of  his  fathers,  his  wife,  his  sons,  his 
daughters,  and  his  brothers,  the  seed  of  the  house 
of  his  fathers,  I  removed,  and  I  sent  him  to  As- 
syria. I  set  over  the  men  of  Ashkelon,  Sarludari, 
the  son  of  Rukipti,  their  former  king,  and  I  im- 
posed upon  him  the  payment  of  tribute  and  the 
homage  due  to  my  majesty,  and  he  became  a  vas- 
sal. In  the  course  of  my  campaign  I  approached 
and  captured  Beth-dagon,  Joppa,  Bene-berak,  and 
Azur,  the  cities  of  Zedekiah  which  did  not  submit 
at  once  to  my  yoke,  and  I  carried  away  their 
spoil.  The  priests,  the  chief  men,  and  the  com- 
mon people  of  Ekron,  who  had  thrown  into  chains 
their  king  Padi  (Pedaiah)  because  he  was  faithful 
to  his  oaths  to  Assyria,  and  had  given  him  up  to 
Hezekiah  the  Jew,  who  imprisoned  him  like  an 
enemy  in  a  dark  dungeon,  feared  in  their  hearts. 
The  king  of  Egypt,  the  bowmen,  the  chariots, 
and  the  horses  of  the  king  of  Ethiopia,  had  gath- 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       25 

ered  together  innumerable  forces  and  gone  to  their 
assistance.  In  sight  of  the  town  of  Bltekeh  was 
their  order  of  battle  drawn  up;  they  summoned 
their  troops  (to  the  fight).  Trusting  in  Assur,  my 
lord,  I  fought  with  them  and  overthrew  them. 
My  hands  took  the  captains  of  the  chariots  and 
the  sons  of  the  king  of  Egypt,  as  well  as  the  cap- 
tains of  the  chariots  of  the  king  of  Ethiopia,  alive 
in  the  midst  of  the  battle.  I  approached  and 
captured  the  towns  of  Eltekeh  and  Timnath,  and 
I  carried  away  their  spoil.  I  marched  against  the 
city  of  Ekron,  and  put  to  death  the  priests  and 
the  chief  men  who  had  committed  the  sin  (of  re- 
bellion), and  I  hung  up  their  bodies  on  stakes  all 
round  the  city.  The  citizens  who  had  done 
wrong  and  wickedness  I  counted  as  a  spoil ;  as  for 
the  rest  of  them  who  had  done  no  sin  or  crime,  in 
whom  no  fault  was  found,  I  proclaimed  their  free- 
dom (from  punishment).  I  had  Padi,  their  king, 
brought  out  from  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  and  I 
seated  him  on  the  throne  of  royalty  over  them, 
and  I  laid  upon  him  the  tribute  due  to  my  maj- 
esty. But  as  for  Hezekiah  of  Judah,  who-  had 
not  submitted  to  my  yoke,  forty-six  of  his  strong 
cities,  together  with  innumerable  fortresses  and 
small  towns  which  depended  on  them,  by  over- 
throwing the  walls  and  open  attack,  by  battle, 
engines,  and  battering-rams,  I  besieged,  I  cap- 


26     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

tured;  I  brought  out  from  the  midst  of  them  and 
counted  as  a  spoil  200,150  persons,  great  and 
small,  male  and  female,  besides  mules,  asses, 
camels,  oxen,  and  sheep  without  number.  Heze- 
kiah  himself  I  shut  up  like  a  bird  in  a  cage  in 
Jerusalem,  his  royal  city.  I  built  a  line  of  forts 
against  him,  and  I  kept  back  his  heel  from  going 
forth  out  of  the  great  gate  of  his  city.  I  cut  off 
his  cities  which  I  had  spoiled  from  the  midst  of 
his  land,  and  gave  them  to  Metinti,  king  of  Ash- 
dod,  Padi,  king  of  Bkron,  and  Zil-baal,  king  of 
Gaza,  and  I  made  his  country  small.  In  addition 
to  their  former  tribute  and  yearly  gifts,  I  added 
other  tribute  and  the  homage  due  to  my  majesty, 
and  I  laid  it  upon  them.  The  fear  of  the  great- 
ness of  my  majesty  overwhelmed  him,  even  Hes- 
ekiah,  and  he  sent  after  me  to  Nineveh,  my  royal 
city,  by  way  of  gift  and  tribute,  the  Arabs  and  his 
body-guard  whom  he  had  brought  for  the  defence 
of  Jerusalem,  his  royal  city,  and  had  furnished 
with  pay,  along  with  thirty  talents,  eight  hundred 
talents  of  pure  silver,  carbuncles  and  other  pre- 
cious stones,  a  couch  of  ivory,  thrones  of  ivory,  an 
elephant's  hide,  an  elephant's  tusk,  rare  woods  of 
all  kinds,  a  vast  treasure,  as  well  as  the  eunuchs  of 
his  palace,  and  dancing-men  and  dancing- women; 
and  he  sent  his  ambassador  to  offer  homage." 
In  this  account  Sennacherib  discreetly  omits 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.      27 

to  mention  why  it  was  that  he  never  captured 
Jerusalem  itself,  after  all  the  preparations  he  had 
made  for  doing  so,  or  why  he  did  not  succeed  in 
punishing  Hezekiah  as  he  was  accustomed  to 
punish  other  rebellious  princes.  His  silence  on 
this  point,  and  the  fact  that  he  never  again  ven- 
tured to  invade  Palestine,  are  the  strongest  pos- 
sible confirmations  of  the  truth  of  the  Biblical 
story.  In  order  to  cover  the  disastrous  ending  of 
his  campaign  he  has  transposed  the  period  at 
which  He^ekiah's  embassy  was  sent  to  him,  and 
made  it  follow  the  despatch  of  the  rab-shakeh  or 
chamberlain  to  Jerusalem.  It  really  preceded  the 
latter  event,  and  was  a  vain  attempt  on  the  part 
of  Hezekiah  to  buy  off  the  punishment  threat- 
ened him  by  the  Assyrian  king.  The  embassy 
reached  Sennacherib  just  after  his  capture  of 
Lachish  in  the  south  of  Judah,  and  there  is  now 
a  bas-relief  in  the  British  Museum  which  repre- 
sents him  seated  on  his  throne,  with  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  unfortunate  city  kneeling  before  him. 
An  inscription  in  front  of  the  king  reads:  "  Sen- 
nacherib, the  king  of  multitudes,  the  king  of 
Assyria,  sat  on  an  upright  throne,  and  the  spoil 
of  the  city  of  Lachish  passed  before  him. ' ' 

Before  we  leave  the  Assyrian  records  we  must 
notice  a  statement  of  Scripture  which  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  hostile  criticism,  but  has  now 


28     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

been  curiously  verified  by  modern  research.  In 
2  Chron.  33  :  ii  it  is  said  that  the  king  of  Assyria, 
after  crushing  the  revolt  of  Manasseh,  carried  him 
away  captive  to  Babylon.  The  fact  is  not  men- 
tioned in  the  books  of  Kings,  and  it  has  been 
asked,  How  could  a  king  of  Assyria  carry  his 
prisoners  to  Babylon  ?  Had  the  fact  been  an  in- 
vention of  a  later  age,  when  the  history  of  Assyria 
had  been  forgotten,  we  may  feel  quite  sure  that 
Nineveh  and  not  Babylon  would  have  been  as- 
signed as  the  place  of  Manasseh' s  imprisonment. 
But  the  supposed  error  turns  out  to  be  a  strong 
verification  of  the  Scriptural  narrative.  Manas- 
seh was  the  contemporary  of  Sennacherib's  son 
and  successor,  Bsar-haddon,  who  alludes  to  him 
by  name  in  more  than  one  inscription;  and  Esar- 
haddon  not  only  rebuilt  Babylon,  which  had  been 
destroyed  by  his  father,  but  held  his  court  there 
during  half  the  year.  That  Manasseh  should 
afterwards  have  been  pardoned  and  restored  to 
his  throne  is  also  in  full  accordance  with  the  evi- 
dence of  the  monuments.  Rebel  princes  wrere  so 
treated  not  unfrequently.  Thus,  Assur-bani-pal, 
the  successor  of  Esar-haddon,  tells  us  that,  after 
sending  a  revolted  Egyptian  prince  to  Nineveh, 
bound  hand  and  foot  with  iron  fetters,  he  forgave 
the  prisoner  and  allowed  him  to  return  to  his 
kingdom. 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.        2Q 

Jerusalem  was  destined  to  fall  by  the  hand, 
not  of  an  Assyrian,  but  of  a  Babylonian  monarch. 
The  Babylonian  Empire  of  Nebuchadnezzar  rose 
on  the  ruins  of  that  of  Assyria;  but  though  we 
have  many  inscriptions  of  the  great  Babylonian 
king  relating  to  his  buildings,  only  a  small  frag- 
ment of  his  annals  has  as  yet  been  found.  This, 
however,  disposes  of  the  doubts  that  have  been 
expressed  as  to  the  fulfilment  of  Jeremiah's  proph- 
ecy of  the  Babylonian  conquest  of  Egypt.  It  tells 
us  that,  in  his  thirty-seventh  year  (B.  C.  568), 
Nebuchadnezzar  invaded  Egypt  and  defeated  the 
Egyptian  king  Amasis.  Egyptian  monuments 
supplement  this  mutilated  record.  We  learn 
from  them  that  the  invading  forces  penetrated 
the  country  as  far  as  the  extreme  south,  and  that 
it  was  not  until  they  had  reached  Assouan  that 
they  were  driven  back  again  by  the  Egyptian 
general,  Hor.  Only  a  year  ago  an  interesting 
discovery  was  made  in  the  mounds  of  Tel  Defen- 
neh,  the  ancient  Daphne,  on  the  western  side  of 
the  Suez  Canal.  This  consisted  of  small  clay 
cylinders  covered  with  Babylonian  writing,  which 
enumerated  the  titles  and  building  operations  of 
Nebuchadnezzar.  They  must  have  been  buried 
in  this  frontier  town  of  Egypt  as  a  token  of  the 
Babylonian  conquest  of  the  country. 

The  history  of  the  overthrow  of  Nebuchad- 


30    THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

ne^^ar's  empire  has  now  been  told  to  us  by  Cyrus 
himself.  Two  long  inscriptions  of  his  have  been 
discovered  in  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  one  of  which 
gives,  in  chronological  order,  the  events  which 
marked  the  reign  of  Nabonnidus,  the  father  of  Bel- 
shaz^ar,  and  the  last  Babylonian  king,  as  well  as 
the  history  of  the  final  conquest  of  Babylon;  while 
the  other  is  a  proclamation  put  forth  by  Cyrus  not 
long  after  the  defeat  and  death  of  Nabonnidus.  In 
this  he  declares  that  u  Bel-merodach,  the  great 
lord,  the  restorer  of  his  people,  beheld  with  joy 
the  deeds  of  his  vicegerent  (Cyrus),  who  was 
righteous  in  hand  and  heart.  To  his  city  of  Bab- 
ylon he  summoned  his  march,  and  bade  him  take 
the  road  to  Babylon  ;  like  a  friend  and  a  comrade 
he  went  to  his  side." 

When  the  conquest  was  completed  Cyrus  as- 
sembled the  various  peoples  whom  the  Babylo- 
nian kings  had  carried  into  captivity,  and  restored 
them  and  their  gods  to  their  own  lands.  Among 
these  peoples  were,  as  the  Bible  teaches  us,  the 
Jews,  who  returned,  not  with  the  images  of  false 
gods,  but  with  the  sacred  vessels  of  the  ruined 
temple. 

Such,  then,  are  some  of  the  most  striking  veri- 
fications of  the  truth  of  the  old  Testament  record 
where  it  refers  to  the  great  kingdoms  and  empires 
that  surrounded  the  chosen  people.  In  every  case 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       31 

where  we  can  test  it  by  contemporaneous  monu- 
ments, the  authenticity  of  which  is  doubted  by  no 
one,  we  find  it  confirmed  and  explained  even  in 
the  minutest  points.  Such  accuracy  would  be 
impossible  if  the  Biblical  narratives  had  been  com- 
posed at  a  later  period  than  that  to  which  the 
events  belong.  L,egend  soon  takes  the  place  of 
history  in  the  Bast,  and  the  classical  writers  show 
how  quickly  the  real  annals  of  Egypt  and  Assyria 
were  forgotten.  Monumental  research  has  not 
only  proved  the  truth  of  the  events  recorded  in 
Scripture,  it  also  proves  that  the  account  of  these 
events  must  have  been  written  by  contempora- 
ries. On  no  other  hypothesis  is  the  minute  accu- 
racy which  distinguishes  it  to  be  explained. 

This  accuracy  has  lately  been  illustrated  by  a 
startling  and  unexpected  discovery.  Besides  the 
small  Hittite  tribe  settled  in  the  south  of  Judah, 
of  whom  we  hear  so  much  in  connection  with  the 
lives  of  the  patriarchs,  reference  is  more  than  once 
made  in  the  books  of  Kings  to  Hittites  living  in 
the  north  of  Syria.  Solomon,  we  are  told,  im- 
ported horses  from  Egypt,  which  were  sold  again 
to  "all  the  kings  of  the  Hittites n  and  the  kings 
of  Aram  or  Syria,  i  Kin.  10  :  29.  Again,  when 
God  had  sent  a  panic  upon  the  Syrian  army  which 
was  besieging  Samaria,  the  soldiers  of  Ben-hadad 
supposed  that  ( *  the  king  of  Israel  hath  hired 


32     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

against  us  the  kings  of  the  Hittites  and  the  kings 
of  the  Egyptians. ' '     2  Kings  7  :  6. 

Objectors  to  the  historical  truth  of  the  Old 
Testament  narrative,  Hke  Prof.  F.  Newman,  de- 
clared that  these  allusions  to  northern  Hittites 
destroyed  its  credibility.  No  Hittites  in  the  north 
of  Syria  were  known  to  classical  writers;  and  the 
Hittites  of  Genesis  lived  in  the  southern  part  of 
Judaea.  But  first  the  Egyptian  and  then  the  As- 
syrian monuments  proved  that  not  only  did  Hit- 
tite  tribes  inhabit  the  very  district  to  which  the 
notices  in  the  books  of  Kings  would  assign  them, 
but  also  that  they  were  once  a  very  powerful  and 
important  people.  In  the  time  of  the  great  Egyp- 
tian monarch,  Rameses  II.,  the  oppressor  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  they  contended  on  equal  terms 
with  the  Egyptians  themselves ;  the  Egyptian 
king  was  glad  finally  to  secure  a  peace  by  marry- 
ing a  Hittite  princess.  For  several  centuries  they 
successfully  withstood  the  power  of  Assyria;  and 
it  was  not  until  the  reign  of  Sargon  that  their 
capital,  Carchemish,  was  at  last  taken  by  storm, 
and  the  last  Hittite  sovereign  replaced  by  an  As- 
syrian governor.  In  the  age  of  the  Exodus  they 
had  carried  their  arms  across  Asia  Minor  as  far 
as  the  shores  of  the  ^Egean,  and  the  empire  they 
founded  in  Asia  Minor  has  left  remains  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  river  Halys,  as  well  as  on  the 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.        33 

sculptured  rocks  of  L/ydia.  They  had  invented  a 
peculiar  system  of  pictorial  writing,  and  their  art, 
though  based  on  Babylonian  models,  was  also  of 
a  peculiar  kind.  The  early  art  of  Greece  \vas 
indebted  to  it,  and  through  the  art  of  Greece  the 
art  of  modern  Europe  as  well.  The  site  of  their 
northern  capital,  Carchemish,  was  discovered  at 
a  place  now  called  Jerablus,  on  the  Euphrates,  by 
Mr.  George  Smith,  during  the  ill-fated  expedition 
which  eventually  cost  him  his  life.  Since  then 
the  ruins  of  Carchemish  have  been  partially  ex- 
plored, and  some  of  the  Hittite  monuments  disin- 
terred among  them  are  now  in  the  British  Muse- 
um. Carchemish,  however,  was  not  the  only 
capital  the  Hittites  possessed.  The  Bible  speaks 
of  their  "kings"  in  the  plural,  and  in  agreement 
with  this  we  find  from  the  Egyptian  inscriptions 
that  they  had  also  a  southern  capital  on  the  Oron- 
tes,  called  Kadesh.  A  recent  discovery  has  shown 
that  Kadesh  as  well  as  Carchemish  is  mentioned 
in  the  Old  Testament.  Manuscripts  make  it  clear 
that  the  Septuagint  text  of  2  Sam.  24  : 6  reads 
"Kadesh  of  the  Hittites,"  instead  of  the  "Tah- 
tim-hodshi"  of  the  Hebrew  text.  David's  cen- 
sus, according  to  this,  \vas  taken  throughout  the 
whole  extent  of  his  empire,  which  then  included 
Damascus,  and  consequently  bordered  on  the  Hit- 
tite Kadesh  in  the  north.  Here  again,  therefore, 


34    THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

modern  research  has  proved  the  accuracy  of  the 
Old  Testament  record  in  a  point  so  minute  as  to 
have  escaped  the  notice  of  the  most  eagle-eyed 
critic.  Indeed,  the  very  existence  of  the  Hittite 
Kadesh  had  been  forgotten  since  its  destruction 
by  the  Syrian  kings,  shortly  after  the  age  of  Da- 
vid, until  it  was  again  brought  to  light  by  the 
decipherment  of  the  Egyptian  texts. 

The  recovery  of  the  long- forgotten  Hittite 
empire  has  also  revealed  some  more  "undesigned 
coincidences,"  as  they  may  be  called,  between 
the  statements  of  the  sacred  writers  and  the  dis- 
coveries of  modern  research.  While  making  war 
upon  the  Syrians,  David  is  represented  as  being 
on  friendly  terms  with  Hamath.  Toi,  king  of 
Hamath,  in  fact,  sent  his  son  Joram  to  David 
with  presents,  "because  he  had  fought  against 
Hadadezer  and  smitten  him;  for  Hadadezer  had 
wars  with  Toi."  2  Sam.  8:10.  Now  Hamath 
turns  out  to  have  been  a  Hittite  kingdom,  and 
the  Hittites  and  their  Syrian  neighbors  belonged 
to  different  races,  and  were  continually  engaged 
in  war.  It  was  therefore  natural  that  Toi  should 
have  made  alliance  with  David,  who  had  broken 
the  power  of  the  common  enemy.  This  alliance 
between  Hamath  and  Judah  must  have  lasted 
down  to  the  time  when  Hamath  was  reduced  by 
Sargon  and  became  an  Assyrian  dependency. 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       35 

Tiglath-pileser  II.  informs  us  that  Uzziah  of  Ju- 
dah  was  the  ally  of  Yahu-bihdi  or  Jeho-bihad, 
king  of  Hamath.  This  explains  a  passage  of 
Scripture,  2  Kin.  14:28,  which  has  long  present- 
ed a  difficulty,  though  the  difficulty  is  now  seen 
to  have  been  due  to  our  own  ignorance,  and  to  be 
really  a  striking  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the 
inspired  record.  When  it  is  said  that  Jeroboam 
II.  recovered  "Hamath,  which  was  (allied)  with 
Judah,  for  Israel,"  we  are  supplied  with  the  mid- 
dle link  of  a  chain  which  begins  with  the  em- 
bassy of  Toi  to  David,  and  ends  with  the  alliance 
between  Uzziah  and  Yahu-bihdi.  It  is  noticea- 
ble that  Yahu-bihdi  and  Joram,  the  son  of  Toi, 
are  the  only  Gentiles  known  to  us  whose  names 
are  compounded  with  that  of  the  God  of  Israel. 

It  now  only  remains  to  point  out  how  recent 
discoveries  have  shown  that  writing  was  known 
and  practised  in  Judah  at  the  time  to  which  the 
larger  part  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  pro- 
fesses to  belong.  There  have  been  two  discov- 
eries which  more  especially  make  this  clear. 
These  are  the  discoveries  of  the  Moabite  Stone 
and  the  Siloam  Inscription.  The  Moabite  Stone 
was  a  monument  erected  by  Mesha,  the  contem- 
porary of  Ahab,  who  is  called  ua  sheepmaster" 
in  2  Kin.  3:4.  It  is  consequently  as  old  as  the 
ninth  century  before  the  Christian  era,  and  was 


36    THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

discovered  in  1869  by  Mr.  Klein,  a  German  mis- 
sionary, among  the  ruins  of  Dhiban,  the  ancient 
Dibon.  Owing  to  an  unfortunate  dispute  for  the 
possession  of  the  stone,  it  was  broken  into  pieces 
by  the  Arabs,  though  not  until  after  some  imper- 
fect squeezes  of  it  had  been  made.  Most  of  the 
fragments  have  since  been  recovered  and  fitted 
together,  but  the  concluding  lines  are  still  miss- 
ing. A  translation  of  the  text  will  show  how  his- 
torically important  it  is: 

"I,  Mesha,  am  the  son  of  Chemosh-gad,  king 
of  Moab,  the  Dibonite.  My  father  reigned  over 
Moab  thirty  years,  and  I  reigned  after  my  father. 
And  I  erected  this  stone  to  Chemosh  at  Kirkha,  a 
(stone  of)  salvation,  for  he  saved  me  from  all 
despoilers,  and  made  me  see  my  desire  upon  all 
my  enemies,  even  upon  Omri,  king  of  Israel. 
Now  they  afflicted  Moab  many  days,  for  Chemosh 
was  angry  with  his  land.  His  son  succeeded  him; 
and  he  also  said,  I  will  afflict  M.oab.  In  my 
days  (Chemosh)  said,  (Let  us  go)  and  I  will  see 
my  desire  upon  him  and  his  house,  and  I  will 
destroy  Israel  with  an  everlasting  destruction. 
Now  Omri  took  the  land  of  Medeba,  and  (the  en- 
emy) occupied  it  in  (his  days  and  in)  the  days  of 
his  son,  forty  years.  And  Chemosh  (had  mercy) 
on  it  in  my  days;  and  I  fortified  Baal-meon,  and 
I  made  therein  the  tank,  and  I  fortified  Kiriatha- 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       37 

im.  For  the  men  of  Gad  dwelt  in  the  land  of 
(Atar)oth  from  of  old,  and  the  king  (of)  Israel  for- 
tified for  himself  Ataroth,  and  I  assaulted  the  wall 
and  captured  it,  and  killed  all  the  warriors  of  the 
wall  for  the  well-pleasing  of  Chemosh  and  Moab; 
and  I  removed  from  it  all  the  spoil,  and  (offered) 
it  before  Chemosh  in  Kirjath;  and  I  placed  there- 
in the  men  of  Siran  and  the  men  of  Mochrath. 
And  Chemosh  said  to  me,  Go,  take  Nebo  against 
Israel.  (And  I)  went  in  the  night,  and  I  fought 
against  it  from  the  break  of  dawn  till  noon,  and  I 
took  it  and  slew  in  all  7,000  (men,  but  I  did  not 
kill)  the  women  (and)  maidens,  for  (I)  devoted 
them  to  Ashtar-chemosh ;  and  I  took  from  it  the 
vessels  of  Yahveh  [Jehovah],  and  offered  them 
before  Chemosh.  And  the  king  of  Israel  fortified 
Jahaz,  and  occupied  it,  when  he  made  war  against 
me;  and  Chemosh  drove  him  out  before  (me,  and) 
I  took  from  Moab  200  men,  all  its  poor,  and  placed 
them  in  Jahaz,  and  took  it  to  annex  it  to  Dibon. 
I  built  Kirkha,  the  wall  of  the  forest,  and  the  wall 
of  the  city,  and  I  built  the  gates  thereof,  and  I 
built  the  towers  thereof,  and  I  built  the  palace, 
and  I  made  the  prisons  for  the  criminals  within 
the  \valls.  And  there  was  no  cistern  in  the  wall 
at  Kirkha,  and  I  said  to  all  the  people,  Make  for 
yourselves,  every  man,  a  cistern  in  his  house. 
And  I  dug  the  ditch  for  Kirkha  by  means  of  the 


38     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

(captive)  men  of  Israel.  I  built  Aroer,  and  I 
made  the  road  across  the  Arnon.  I  built  Beth- 
bamoth,  for  it  was  destroyed;  I  built  Bezer,  for  it 
had  been  cut  (down)  by  the  armed  men  of  Dibon, 
for  all  Dibon  was  now  loyal;  and  I  reigned  from 
Bikran,  which  I  added  to  my  land,  and  I  built 
(Beth-gamul)  and  Beth-diblathaim  and  Beth-baal- 
meon,  and  I  placed  there  the  poor  (people)  of  the 
land.  And  as  to  Horonaim,  (the  men  of  Edom) 
dwelt  therein  (from  of  old).  And  Chemosh  said 
to  me,  Go  down,  make  war  against  Horonaim, 
and  take  (it.  And  I  assaulted  it  and  I  took  it,  and) 
Chemosh  (restored  it)  in  my  days.  Wherefore  I 
made.  .  ."' 

The  story  told  by  Mesha  and  the  account  given 
in  the  Bible  supplement  one  another.  Mesha  de- 
livered Moab  from  the  yoke  of  the  Israelites  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Ahaxiah,  the  successor  of  Ahab, 
and  Joram,  Ahaziah's  successor,  was  subsequently 
driven  out  of  Jahaz.  It  was  at  this  moment  of 
national  victory  that  Mesha  erected  the  monu- 
ment recording  his  success.  Then,  however,  the 
tide  of  fortune  turned,  Joram  summoned  his  allies 
from  Judali  and  Edom,  Moab  was  ravaged,  and 
Mesha  besieged  in  his  capital  of  Kirkha.  In  his 
despair  he  sacrificed  his  eldest  son;  "and  there 
was  great  indignation  against  Israel;  and  they  de- 
parted from  him  and  returned  to  their  own  land." 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       39 

The  chief  interest  attaching  to  the  inscription 
in  our  eyes  lies  perhaps  in  the  language  and 
characters  in  which  it  is  written.  The  language 
is  almost  exactly  the  same  as  that  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, and  shows  that  the  dialect  of  Moab  dif- 
fered much  less  from  Hebrew  than  does  one  Eng- 
lish dialect  from  another.  The  very  phrases 
recur  which  the  Old  Testament  has  made  famil- 
iar to  us,  and  at  times  we  might  fancy  that  we 
were  listening  to  a  chapter  of  the  Bible.  The 
characters,  too,  in  which  the  text  is  written  be- 
long to  a  form  of  the  Phoenician  alphabet  which 
must  have  resembled  very  closely  that  used  by 
the  Jews.  We  may  thus  see  in  them  the  mode  of 
writing  employed  by  the  earlier  prophets,  and 
correct  by  their  means  the  corrupt  readings  which 
the  carelessness  of  copyists  has  allowed  to  creep 
into  the  sacred  text. 

Since  the  discovery  of  the  Moabite  Stone,  an- 
other early  inscription  has  been  found  in  Jerusa- 
lem itself,  which  shows  us  precisely  how  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  were  com- 
posed between  the  time  of  David  and  the  Babylo- 
nian Captivity,  must  have  been  originally  writ- 
ten. This  is  the  Siloam  inscription,  engraved  in 
the  rock-cut  tunnel  which  conveys  the  water  of 
the  Virgin's  Spring — the  only  natural  spring  in 
or  about  Jerusalem — to  the  Pool  of  Siloam.  Its 


40    THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

strange  position  in  a  dark  underground  conduit, 
through  which  the  water  was  perpetually  flowing, 
caused  it  to  remain  unnoticed  until  three  or  four 
years  ago.  Even  after  the  discovery  the  water 
had  to  be  lowered,  and  the  calcareous  deposit 
with  which  the  characters  were  filled  to  be  re- 
moved, before  the  inscription  could  be  satisfac- 
torily read.  It  runs  as  follows: 

"(Behold)  the  excavation!  Now  this  is  the 
history  of  the  excavation.  While  the  excavators 
were  still  lifting  up  the  pick,  each  towards  his 
neighbor,  and  while  there  were  yet  three  cubits  to 
(excavate,  there  was  heard)  the  voice  of  one  man 
calling  to  his  neighbor,  for  there  was  an  excess 
in  the  rock  on  the  right  hand  (and  on  the  left). 
And  after  that  on  the  day  of  excavating  the  exca- 
vators had  struck  pick  against  pick,  one  against 
the  other,  the  waters  flowed  from  the  spring  to 
the  pool  for  a  distance  of  1,200  cubits.  And 
(part)  of  a  cubit  was  the  height  of  the  rock  over 
the  head  of  the  excavators. ' ' 

It  will  be  observed  that  even  at  so  early  a  pe- 
riod as  that  to  which  the  inscription  belongs  the 
art  of  engineering  was  sufficiently  advanced  to 
allow  the  workmen  of  the  Jewish  king  to  com- 
mence tunnelling  the  hill  simultaneously  at  its 
two  opposite  ends,  and  to  calculate  upon  meeting 
in  the  middle.  What  makes  the  work  the  more 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       41 

astonishing  is  that  the  distance  from  the  mouth 
of  the  tunnel  to  its  exit  is  1,708  yards,  and  that 
the  tunnel  itself  winds  about  a  good  deal.  The 
exact  date  at  which  the  work  was  executed  is 
disputed,  since  while  there  are  several  reasons 
which  would  make  us  assign  it  to  the  age  of  Sol- 
omon, there  are  others  which  have  led  the  major- 
ity of  scholars  to  place  it  in  the  reign  of  Heze- 
kiah.  In  this  case  it  will  be  the  conduit  made 
by  Hezekiah  which  is  mentioned  in  2  Kin.  20:20 
and  2  Chron.  32:30.  Now  the  forms  of  the  let- 
ters used  in  the  inscription  make  it  quite  clear 
that  the  engraver  was  accustomed  to  write  on 
parchment  or  papyrus  and  not  on  stone.  They 
are  rounded,  and  not  angular  like  the  characters 
on  the  Moabite  Stone.  It  is  plain,  therefore,  that 
the  alphabet  employed  in  Judah  was  that  of  a 
people  who  were  in  the  habit  of  writing  and  read- 
ing books.  Another  noticeable  peculiarity  about 
the  inscription  is  that  it  is  not  a  public  document; 
even  the  name  of  the  reigning  king  is  not  men- 
tioned. It  must  have  been  engraved  by  one  of 
the  workmen  in  his  delight  at  the  successful  com- 
pletion of  the  work.  The  careful  way  in  which 
the  letters  are  formed,  and  the  labor  involved  in 
cutting  them  in  a  place  where  they  were  never 
likely  to  be  seen,  prove  that  writing  was  as  famil- 
iar to  him  as  tunnelling1  the  rock.  The 


U^iU;     .  | 

UNIVERSITY 


42     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

sion  from  this  fact  is  ob\7ious;  if  an  ordinary  work- 
man was  thus  familiar  with  the  art  of  writing, 
the  professional  scribes  and  priests  and  members 
of  the  prophetical  schools  must  have  been  much 
more  so.  There  is  no  reason  for  thinking  that 
the  art  was  not  as  much  known  and  practised  as 
it  is  in  our  own  day. 

This  conclusion  is  confirmed  by  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt  and  Assyria.  Books  were  com- 
mon in  Egypt  from  the  very  earliest  times ;  the 
profession  of  the  scribe  was  held  in  high  honor; 
and  both  public  and  private  monuments  were 
covered  with  characters  which  it  was  presumed 
could  be  read  by  every  one.  Among  the  frag- 
ments of  ancient  Egyptian  literature  that  have 
come  down  to  us  is  a  collection  of  letters,  intend- 
ed to  serve  as  a  model  for  this  particular  kind  of 
composition.  The  great  library  of  Nineveh  has 
already  been  alluded  to.  This  was  formed  in 
imitation  of  the  libraries  that  had  existed  in  all 
the  Babylonian  cities  from  a  most  remote  period. 
Long  before  the  age  of  Abraham  there  were  not 
only  libraries  well  stocked  with  books  on  clay 
and  papyrus,  but  there  were  numerous  readers 
also.  The  libraries  were  public,  and  the  extent 
to  which  their  contents  were  increased  by  the 
addition  of  new  works  and  the  multiplication  of 
copies  of  old  ones  shows  how  well  frequented  they 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       43 

were.  The  books  were  arranged  and  catalogued 
as  in  a  modern  library,  and  they  treated  of  every 
department  of  knowledge  and  represented  every 
class  of  literature  which  was  known  at  the  time. 
If  the  Israelites  had  been  illiterate,  living  mid- 
way, as  they  did,  between  Assyria  and  Egypt, 
and  bordering  on  the  highly -civilized  cities  of 
Phoenicia,  it  would  have  been  nothing  short  of  a 
miracle.  That  they  were  not  so  has  now  been 
put  beyond  the  reach  of  cavil  by  the  discovery  of 
the  Siloam  inscription.  It  bears  out  the  testi- 
mony afforded  by  a  passage  in  Proverbs  (25  :  i), 
where  it  is  said  that  Hezekiah's  scribes  made  a 
new  edition  of  the  proverbs  of  Solomon,  doubt- 
less for  a  library  similar  to  those  of  Assyria  and 
Babylon. 

The  recovery  of  the  ancient  civilizations  of 
the  Bast  during  the  last  half- century  has  thus 
made  it  clear  (i)  that  the  narratives  of  the  Old 
Testament,  wherever  they  can  be  tested  by  con- 
fessedly contemporaneous  documents,  are  accurate 
even  to  the  most  minute  details;  (2)  that  the  Jews 
before  the  exile  were  a  literary  people,  possessing 
at  least  one  library,  and  well  acquainted  with  the 
art  of  writing.  Consequently,  no  arguments  can 
be  drawn  against  the  credibility  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  on  the  ground  that  their  histor- 
ical statements  are  false  or  mythical,  or  that  they 


44     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

could  not  have  been  written  at  the  early  date  to 
which  they  lay  claim.  There  is  no  reason  why 
Abraham  himself  should  not  have  been  able  to 
write;  his  contemporaries  in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees 
could  most  of  them  do  so;  there  is  still  less  reason 
why  his  descendants  who  had  been  brought  into 
contact  with  the  literature  of  Egypt  should  not 
have  written  too.  If  the  Biblical  books  were 
composed  at  the  time  to  which  the  events  de- 
scribed in  them  belong,  the  accounts  they  give  of 
those  events  would  have  all  the  authority  and 
weight  of  contemporary  evidence.  A  writer  does 
not  give  a  false  account  of  things  which  are  well 
known  to  his  readers,  or  imagine  events  \Vhich 
his  contemporaries  can  show  have  never  hap- 
pened. We  have  seen  that  what  we  now  know 
about  the  history  of  writing  in  the  Bast  not  only 
makes  it  possible  that  the  Biblical  books  were 
written  at  the  time  to  which  tradition  assigns 
them,  but  also  makes  it  probable  that  they  were. 
It  is  not  likely  that  the  Israelites  would  have  ab- 
stained from  composing  books  when  they  were 
acquainted  with  the  art  of  writing,  and  when  the 
nations  by  whom  they  were  surrounded  had  long 
been  in  the  possession  of  libraries.  And  that  the 
Biblical  books  actually  belong  to  the  time  to 
•which  tradition  assigns  them  is  evidenced  by  the 
confirmation  their  contents  have  received  from 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT, SCRIPTURES.       45 

the  decipherment  of  the  Egyptian  and  Assyrian 
monuments.  The  accuracy  they  display  in  small 
points  is  only  explicable,  as  we  have  seen,  on  the 
hypothesis  that  the  histories  contained  in  them 
were  related  by  contemporaries. 

The  Old  Testament  is  the  preparation  for  the 
New.  The  divine  authority  of  the  one  is  inti- 
mately bound  up  with  that  of  the  other.  The 
history  of  the  Jewish  Church  finds  its  explanation 
only  in  the  advent  of  Christ;  the  message  deliv- 
ered by  the  prophets  cannot  be  understood  except 
in  the  light  of  the  gospel.  If  the  history  is  a 
medley  of  myths  and  legends,  where  are  the  foun- 
dations upon  which  Christianity  was  to  build?  If 
the  prophecies  were  the  composition  of  a  later  age 
than  that  to  which  they  profess  to  refer,  what  be- 
comes of  the  testimony  to  which  our  Lord  himself 
appealed?  Happily  we  are  not  called  upon  to 
answer  these  questions;  the  long -buried  stones 
have  been  disinterred  to  cry  out  against  the  as- 
sailants of  our  faith,  the  long-forgotten  empires  of 
the  ancient  Bast  have  arisen  out  of  the  grave  of 
centuries  to  testify  to  the  truth  of  "  the  oracles  of 
God." 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  argument  of  this  tract 
has  so  far  been  a  positive  one.  We  have  endeav- 
ored to  show  by  the  aid  of  contemporaneous  mon- 
uments that  the  Jews  and  their  neighbors  were 


46    THE  WITNESS  OK  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

not  the  barbarous  and  illiterate  people  objectors 
to  the  truth  of  the  Biblical  narrative  have  tacitly 
assumed  them  to  be,  and  we  have  further  pointed 
out  the  agreement  between  the  Biblical  narrative 
and  these  contemporaneous  monuments  wherever 
they  come  into  contact  with  one  another.  But 
the  argument  would  not  be  complete  unless  we 
add  to  it  a  negative  one.  We  have  to  show  that 
the  statements  contained  in  books  later  in  date 
than  the  events  which  they  profess  to  record  are 
not  only  inconsistent  with  the  evidence  of  the 
monuments,  but  are  frequently  contradicted  by  it. 
Books  like  those  of  Tobit  and  Judith,  on  the  one 
hand,  or  the  history  of  the  ancient  East  preserved 
in  classical  writers,  on  the  other  hand,  will  not 
bear  the  test  of  an  appeal  to  the  native  inscrip- 
tions. Their  statements  are  frequently  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  facts  obtained  by  modern  Egyp- 
tian and  Assyrian  research,  and  they  betray  their 
late  origin  in  various  small  inaccuracies. 

Let  us  take,  for  example,  the  book  of  Tobit. 
Tobit  is  said  to  have  been  carried  captive  to  Nin- 
eveh, along  with  his  brethren  of  the  tribe  of 
Naphtali,  by  the  Assyrian  king  Enemessar,  whose 
son  and  successor  was  Sennacherib.  But  Naph- 
tali, as  we  have  seen,  was  really  carried  into  cap- 
tivity by  Tiglath-pileser,  who  was  in  no  way 
related  to  Sennacherib,  and  between  whom  and 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.      47 

Sennacherib  there  was  an  interval  of  two  reigns 
and  twenty-two  years.  Knemessar  is  evidently 
intended  for  Shalmaneser,  the  Assyrian  Sallima- 
nu-esir — "Solomon  (i.  e.,  the  god  of  peace)  di- 
rects." Shalmaneser,  however,  did  not  even 
belong  to  the  same  family  as  Sennacherib.  Sen- 
nacherib's father  was  Sargon,  who  had  seized  the 
throne  on  the  death  or  murder  of  Shalmaneser. 
But  the  author  of  the  book  of  Tobit  knew  nothing 
of  Sargon.  A  misinterpretation  of  the  passage  in 
the  book  of  Kings  relating  to  the  fall  of  Samaria 
had  led  him  to  imagine  that  it  had  been  captured 
by  Shalmaneser ;  and  as  Sennacherib  was  the 
next  king  of  Assyria  whose  name  appeared  in  the 
historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  jumped 
to  the  conclusion  that  Shalmaneser  had  been  his 
father  and  immediate  predecessor. 

Tobit  is  further  made  to  assert  that  Sennache- 
rib's murder  took  place  only  fifty-five  days  after 
his  return  from  his  disastrous  campaign  in  Pales- 
tine. Here  again  the  author  of  the  apocryphal 
book  has  misinterpreted  the  Old  Testament  rec- 
ord, and  has  accordingly  been  led  into  a  grave 
historical  error.  The  campaign  in  Palestine  oc- 
curred in  B.  C.  701,  and  Sennacherib's  death  in 
B.  C.  681,  so  that  there  was  really  an  interval  of 
twenty  years  between  the  two  events.  During 
this  interval  Sennacherib  engaged  in  several 


48     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

wars,  though  he  did  not  again  venture  to  attack 
Hezekiah,  and  we  possess  inscriptions  of  his  in 
which  he  describes  them. 

The  geography  of  Tobit  is  as  irreconcilable 
with  the  monumental  evidence  as  is  the  history. 
Rages,  the  city  of  Media  which  Tobit  is  said  to 
have  visited,  probably  had  no  existence  in  the 
time  of  Sennacherib.  At  any  rate,  it  was  un- 
known to  the  Assyrians,  and  consequently  could 
not  have  been  one  of  the  Median  cities  in  which 
the  Israel itish  captives  were  settled  by  the  Assyr- 
ian king.  The  same  was  also  the  case  with  Ecba- 
tana.  No  mention  is  made  of  it  in  the  Assyrian 
inscriptions  before  the  fall  of  Nineveh;  and  since 
the  district  in  which  it  was  situated  was  overrun 
by  Sargon,  it  would  seem  that  it  was  founded 
subsequently  to  his  reign.  At  all  events,  in  the 
age  of  Sargon  and  Sennacherib,  the  district  of 
which  it  was  afterwards  the  capital  did  not  form 
part  of  Media  at  all.  It  was  called  Bllip,  the 
Medes  living  to  the  north  and  the  east  of  it.  Like 
Rages,  therefore,  it  could,  not  have  received  an 
Israelitish  population  from  the  Assyrians.  The 
anachronism  is  only  equalled  by  the  historical 
anachronism  in  the  last  verse  of  the  book,  where 
it  is  stated  that  Nineveh  was  overthrown  by  Neb- 
uchadnezzar and  Assuerus.  The  real  destroyers 
of  Nineveh  were  Cyaxares,  the  Median  monarch, 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       49 

and  Nabopolassar,  the  father  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 
Assuerus  is  the  Hebrew  form  of  Xerxes,  and  Xer- 
xes was  a  Persian  prince,  who  did  not  reign  until 
a  century  and  a  half  after  the  fall  of  the  Assyrian 
Empire. 

If  we  pass  from  the  book  of  Tobit  to  the  book 
of  Judith,  and  test  its  statements  by  the  monu- 
ments, we  shall  find  them  equally  false.  It  be- 
gins by  alleging  that  Nebuchadnezzar  ruled  in 
Nineveh,  and  Arphaxad  "reigned  over  the  Medes 
in  Ecbatana."  But  Nineveh  had  become  a  "ru- 
inous heap"  before  Nebuchadnezzar  had  begun 
to  rule  anywhere;  and  he  ruled,  not  over  Assyria, 
but  over  Babylon.  The  contemporary  king  who 
reigned  in  Ecbatana  was  Cyaxares.  Arphaxad  is 
taken  from  the  genealogy  of  Shem  in  Genesis  10, 
and  is  a  name  compounded  with  the  word  Che- 
sed,  or  "  Chaldaean."  It  need  hardly  be  added 
that  the  Chaldsean  and  Median  languages  were 
widely  different  from  each  other,  and  that  conse- 
quently a  Median  prince  was  not  likely  to  bear  a 
name  which  contained  the  Babylonian  form  of 
the  word  "Chaldsean." 

The  wars  carried  on  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  as 
described  in  the  book  of  Judith,  are  mere  fictions 
of  the  imagination.  His  conquest  of  Ecbatana, 
and  capture  of  its  ruler,  had  as  little  foundation 
in  fact  as  the  assertion  that  he  returned  to  "  Nin- 

4 


50     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

eveh"  after  doing  so.  The  eighteenth  year  of 
Nebuchadnezzar's  reign,  in  which  his  army  is 
said  to  have  overrun  Syria  and  Palestine  and  to 
have  threatened  Jerusalem,  was  two  years  after 
the  destruction  of  the  Jewish  capital  and  the 
murder  of  Gedaliah.  The  name  of  the  general 
who  is  supposed  to  have  commanded  the  expedi- 
tion, Holofernes,  is  Persian,  and  not  Babylonian; 
and  the  geographical  details  of  the  campaign  only 
prove  the  ignorance  of  the  writer.  Cilicia  is  stated 
to  be  little  more  than  three  days'  journey  dis- 
tant from  Nineveh,  Mesopotamia  is  placed  on 
the  western  instead  of  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Euphrates,  and  the  nations  of  Phut,  Lud,  and 
Rosh,  together  with  the  children  of  Ishmael,  are 
all  grouped  together  in  the  neighborhood  of  As- 
syria. It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  observe  that 
lyiid  or  Lydia  lay  in  the  extreme  west  of  Asia 
Minor,  that  Phut  or  Punt  was  the  Somali  coast 
of  East  Africa,  that  Rosh  is  a  misinterpretation 
of  Ezekiel  38  :  2,  where  the  Hebrew  word  is  right- 
ly rendered,  "chief"  in  the  Authorized  Ver- 
sion, and  that  the  descendants  of  Ishmael  inhab- 
ited the  deserts  of  Northern  and  Central  Arabia. 
Similarly  "Joakim,  the  high  priest  which  was  in 
those  days  in  Jerusalem,"  really  lived  in  the  time 
of  the  Persian  king  Darius,  a  century  after  the 
age  of  Nebuchadnezzar;  and  the  very  existence 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       5  I 

of  Bethulia,  the  supposed  city  of  Judith,  is  a 
matter  of  doubt.  The  book  of  Judith,  in  fact,  is 
a  tissue  of  historical  and  geographical  confusions 
and  impossibilities;  in  almost  every  particular  it 
is  contradicted  by  the  testimony  of  the  ancient 
monuments. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  classical  writers  who 
have  left  accounts  of  the  ancient  history  of  the 
Bast.  Among  these  Herodotus  and  Ctesias  of 
Cnidus  naturally  claim  our  first  attention.  Herod- 
otus has  been  termed  the  Father  of  History,  since 
the  later  classical  conceptions  of  Oriental  history 
were  in  great  measure  based  upon  his  work. 
Ctesias  was  the  physician  of  the  Persian  king,  Ar- 
taxerxes,  and  thus  had  access  to  the  State  archives 
of  Persia;  on  the  strength  of  these  he  maintained 
that  Herodotus  had  "lied,"  and  he  wrote  a  work 
with  the  object  of  contradicting  most  of  the  older 
historian's  statements.  But  when  confronted  with 
contemporaneous  monuments  Herodotus  and  Cte- 
sias alike  turn  out  to  be  false  guides.  In  Egypt, 
Herodotus  placed  the  pyramid-builders  after  the 
time  of  Rameses  or  Sesostris,  and  but  shortly  be- 
fore the  age  of  the  Ethiopians  Sabaco  and  Tirha- 
kah,  although  in  reality  they  preceded  them  by 
centuries.  Among  the  Egyptian  kings  a  Greek 
demi-god,  and  Lake  Moeris  in  the  Fayum,  are 
made  to  figure,  and  the  work  of  Herodotus  abounds 


52     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

with  small  inaccuracies  in  the  explanations  of 
Egyptian  words  and  customs  and  in  the  descrip- 
tion of. the  products  of  the  country.  His  account 
of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  is  still  more  misleading. 
The  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Empires  are  con- 
founded together,  just  as  they  are  in  the  book  of 
Judith;  Sennacherib  is  called  king  of  the  Ara- 
bians, and  Nebuchadnezzar  is  transformed  into 
Labynetos  I.  (or  Nabonnidus),  and  made  the  father 
of  the  real  Nabonnidus.  The  fortifications  of 
Babylonia  are  ascribed  to  a  Queen  Nitocris,  who 
bears  an  Egyptian  name,  and  is  placed  five  gen- 
erations after  Semiramis,  a  title  of  the  Babylonian 
goddess  Istar  or  Ashtoreth;  while  Ninus,  that  is 
Nineveh,  is  supposed  to  be  an  Assyrian  monarch, 
and  termed  the  son  of  Belus  or  Baal. 

In  the  fragments  of  Ctesias,  Assyrian  history 
fares  no  better.  Here,  too,  we  find  Belus,  Ninus, 
and  Semiramis,  registered  among  the  Assyrian 
monarchs,  along  with  Zames  or  Samas,  the  Sun- 
god,  and  Arios  or  Nergal.  The  fall  of  the  As- 
syrian Empire  is  placed  two  centuries  too  early, 
and  its  last  king  (Sardanapalus,)  is  imagined  to 
have  burnt  himself  in  his  palace,  to  save  himself 
from  falling  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Sardanapalus  is  the  Assur-bani- 
pal  of  the  inscriptions,  who  probably  appears  in 
Ezra  4: 10  under  the  Persianized  form  of  Asnap- 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       53 

per,  and  who  was  the  son  and  successor  of  Esar- 
haddon.  He  was  not  the  last  king  of  Assyria; 
and  the  legend  of  his  burning  himself  to  death 
seems  to  have  originated  in  the  punishment  of 
death  by  fire  which  he  inflicted  on  his  brother, 
the  viceroy  of  Babylonia,  after  an  unsuccessful 
rebellion.  Equally  apocryphal  is  the  statement 
that  the  overthrow  of  Nineveh  was  brought  about 
by  Arbaces  the  Mede  and  Belesus  the  Babylonian. 
As  has  already  been  observed,  Cyaxares  and  Nab- 
opolassar  were  the  princes  whose  armies  brought 
the  doom  threatened  by  Nahum  upon  the  great 
oppressing  city  of  Western  Asia. 

Further  examples  are  not  needed  to  prove 
how  quickly  the  true  history  of  the  ancient  East 
was  forgotten,  and  how  hopelessly  irreconcilable 
with  the  evidence  of  the  monuments  are  the 
legends  which  were  substituted  for  it  in  the  pages 
of  later  writers.  Where  the  accounts  are  not 
contemporaneous  with  the  events,  or  derived  from 
contemporaneous  sources,  we  now  know  that  they 
are  untrustworthy,  and  to  a  large  extent  fictitious. 
The  contemporaneous  sources  are  of  course  those 
very  monuments  which  the  industry  and  research 
of  modern  scholars  have  brought  to  light  and  in- 
terpreted. They  were,  however,  speaking  gen- 
erally, inaccessible  to  those  who,  like  the  Jews 
and  Greeks,  did  not  belong  to  the  nations  that 


54     THE  WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS 

produced  them.  The  languages  and  complicated 
systems  of  writing  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia  were 
not  likely  to  be  studied  by  foreigners,  and  stran- 
gers were  seldom  allowed  to  examine  the  royal 
archives  of  the  two  countries.  Indeed,  in  the 
case  of  Assyria  it  was  impossible  to  do  so;  the 
great  library  of  Nineveh  lay  buried  under  the 
ruins  of  the  city,  from  which  it  has  been  disin- 
terred during  the  lifetime  of  the  present  genera- 
tion. 

Jewish  writers,  therefore,  who  lived  after  the 
fall  of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Empires,  or 
in  the  days  of  Persian  and  Greek  supremacy  in 
Egypt,  had  little  chance  of  consulting  the  con- 
temporaneous monuments  of  an  earlier  period. 
Their  information  had  to  be  obtained  from  the 
scanty  and  often  misunderstood  notices  of  Assyr- 
ian and  Egyptian  history  in  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  eked  out  by  their  own  imagination 
and  the  fictions  current  in  the  works  of  Greek 
authors.  Hence  it  is  that  apocryphal  books,  like 
those  of  Tobit  and  Judith,  are  so  full  of  errors 
and  anachronisms,  and  thus  show  plainly  the 
lateness  of  their  composition  and  the  unhistorical 
character  of  their  contents. 

What  a  contrast  this  is  to  the  accuracy  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  pervades  the  canonical  books  of 
the  Old  Testament  Scriptures!  While,  on  the 


TO  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES.       55 

one  side,  the  progress  of  modern  discovery  has 
tended  to  destroy  the  credit  once  attached  to  the 
works  of  Alexandrine  Jews  or  Greek  compilers, 
it  has,  on  the  other  side,  confirmed  and  verified, 
illustrated  and  explained,  the  statements  and  allu- 
sions in  the  historical  and  prophetical  books  of 
Holy  Writ.  The  one  are  shown  to  belong  to  a 
later  age  than  that  of  which  they  profess  to  give 
an  account,  the  other  to  be  contemporaneous 
with  the  events  which  they  record.  We  may 
turn  to  them  with  increased  confidence  and  faith ; 
confidence  in  the  historical  picture  they  set  before 
our  eyes,  and  faith  in  the  divine  message  which 
they  were  commissioned  to  deliver. 

To  sum  up.  The  witness  of  ancient  monu- 
ments to  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  is  of  a 
twofold  nature.  It  is  positive,  inasmuch  as  it 
proves  that  they  are  in  agreement  with  actual 
facts;  and  negative,  inasmuch  as  it  shows  how 
far  this  is  from  being  the  case  with  documents 
which  lay  claim  to  the  same  amount  of  credibil- 
ity and  deal  with  the  same  subject-matter,  but 
which  really  belong  to  a  later  age.  The  witness 
is  therefore  complete.  Difficulties,  no  doubt,  may 
still  exist  here  and  there,  since  as  long  as  our 
knowledge  is  imperfect  there  are  things  which 
cannot  be  satisfactorily  explained ;  but  difficulties 
enough  have  been  already  cleared  away,  confir- 


56      WITNESS  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS. 

illations  sufficient  of  the  truth  of  the  Biblical  rec- 
ord have  been  produced,  to  banish  such  doubts  as 
may  have  found  place  in  our  minds,  and  to  in- 
spire us  with  a  calm  confidence  that  with  the 
increase  of  knowledge  and  the  discovery  of  fresh 
monuments  the  difficulties  which  still  remain 
will  be  diminished  and  the  great  body  of  verify- 
ing  facts  continually  enlarged.  The  critical  ob- 
jections to  the  truth  of  the  Old  Testament  once 
drawn  from  the  armory  of  Greek  and  Latin  wri- 
ters can  never  be  urged  again;  they  have  been 
met  and  overthrown  once  for  all.  The  answers 
to  them  have  come  from  papyrus  and  clay  and 
stone;  from  the  tombs  of  Ancient  Egypt,  from 
the  mounds  of  Babylonia,  and  from  the  ruined 
palaces  of  the  Assyrian  kings. 


THE 


VITALITY  OF  THE 


BY 


REY.  W.  G.  BLAIKIE,  D.  D.,  Lit.  D. 


ARGUMENT  OF  THE  TRACT. 


SOME  facts  are  adduced  to  show  the  falsity  of  Vol- 
taire's prophecy  that  in  a  hundred  years  the  Bible  would 
be  a  forgotten  book,  and  how  utterly  he  and  others 
failed  to  apprehend  its  wonderful  vitality.  In  inquiring 
into  this  vitality  the  origin  and  history  of  the  book  are 
first  examined,  with  a  view  to  bring  out  that  a  volume 
of  such  manifold  authorship  could  have  no  unity  or  co- 
herence had  its  composition  not  been  guided  by  a  divine 
power.  The  next  inquiry  is,  What  does  the  Bible  say — 
what  is  the  principle  of  unity  in  its  contents  ?  In  answer 
to  this,  the  view  dwelt  on  is,  that  from  first  to  last  the 
Bible  reveals  God  drawing  near  to  sinful  man  in  the  way 
of  grace,  and  encourages  him  to  hope  in  His  mercy.  It 
is  further  shown  that  this  mercy  comes  through  a  Me- 
diator, and  the  plan  and  work  of  Christ  in  Scripture  are 
shown  to  be  one  of  the  great  means  of  its  influence. 
Next  it  is  inquired  what  the  Bible  does  ?  The  effects 
on  individuals  and  society  are  touched  on.  But  are 
there  not  difficulties  that  interfere  with  the  conclusion 
that  the  Bible  is  from  God  ?  There  are  difficulties,  but 
they  do  not  weaken  this  conclusion.  Is,  then,  the  great 
power  of  the  Bible  simply  in  the  book  as  a  book  ?  It 
has  power  as  a  book,  but  its  great  power  is  derived 
from  its  being  used  as  the  medium  by  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  works.  "To  recognize  this  gives  confidence  and 
strength;  to  forget  it  plunges  into  error  and  weakness. 
Finally,  reference  is  made  to  some  other  elements  of  the 
vitality  of  the  Bible,  and  in  the  end  to  its  remarkable 
hopefulness,  especially  with  a  view  to  the  winding  up  of 
the  church's  history. 


THE 

VITALITY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


EIGHTEEN  hundred  years  ago  the  apostle  Pe- 
ter spoke  of  ' '  the  Word  of  God  which  li veth  and 
abideth  for  ever."  Seventeen  hundred  years 
passed  away,  and  the  book  which  we  call  * '  the 
Word  of  God"  still  retained  the  vitality  of  which 
the  apostle  spoke.  About  that  time  the  cleverest 
man  in  Europe  determined  to  strip  it  of  its  an- 
cient character.  Voltaire  boasted  that  it  had 
taken  twelve  men  to  set  up  Christianity,  but  he 
would  show  that  a  single  man  was  enough  to 
overthrow  it.  He  ventured  too  on  a  prophecy. 
He  said  that  in  a  hundred  years  the  Bible  would 
be  a  forgotten  book.  About  the  time  when  we 
now  write  it  should  have  been  laid  up  in  the  col- 
lections of  antiquarians,  and  taken  from  its  musty 
shelf  only  as  we  take  Chinese  or  Indian  idols  to 
show  our  Sunday-school  children  the  absurdities 
of  superstition.  Which  of  the  two  prophecies  is 


60  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

it  that  stands  fulfilled  to-day — the  simple-minded 
apostle's  or  the  brilliant  Frenchman's? 

L,et  us  answer  by  reference  to  a  single  scene. 
About  the  time  when  the  Bible  should  have  be- 
come a  forgotten  book  two  companies  of  distin- 
guished scholars  were  holding  frequent  meetings 
in  the  chief  city  of  the  world,  and  often  spending 
hours  in  considering  the  best  rendering  of  a  Greek 
or  a  Hebrew  phrase.  For  years  upon  years  they 
were  giving  many  of  their  best  days  to  such  work, 
straining  their  faculties  to  their  utmost,  exchan- 
ging views,  weighing  arguments,*  praying  for 
light,  hesitating,  reconsidering,  delaying,  resu- 
ming, and  finally  deciding  on  the  points  that 
gave  them  so  much  anxiety.  What  was  it  all 
about  ?  About  the  book  which  Voltaire  had  said 
would  be  forgotten  in  a  century.  They  felt  it  of 
infinite  moment  that  every  word  of  that  book 
should  have  the  most  exact  rendering  in  English 
that  the  resources  of  our  language  could  afford. 
They  were  overwhelmed  at  the  thought  of  the 
consequences  of  error  or  failure  in  the  task  they 
had  undertaken.  In  this  attitude  of  laborious 
carefulness  they  were  sustained  by  the  cordial 
approval  of  the  whole  community.  And  when  a 
portion  of  their  labors  was  finished,  the  swiftest 
engines  that  skill  could  frame  were  kept  at  work 
day  and  night  multiplying  copies  of  what,  after 


THE   VITALITY   OF   THE    BIBLE.  6l 

all,  was  but  a  revision  of  a  former  translation. 
The  demand  for  the  work  was  so  great  that  about 
two  million  copies  were  absorbed  in  Great  Britain 
alone. 

The  Bible  is  a  unique  phenomenon.  It  holds 
and  has  held  in  this  world  a  place  never  equalled, 
never  even  approached,  by  any  other  book.  Its 
position  cannot  reasonably  be  ascribed  to  artificial 
causes.  Under  peculiar  circumstances,  indeed, 
certain  books  may  have  a  popularity  utterly  be- 
yond their  intrinsic  worth.  Their  authors  may 
have  obtained  distinction  in  other  fields.  Persons 
of  great  influence  may  take  a  fancy  to  them  and 
create  a  demand  for  them,  or  their  sale  may  be 
bolstered  up  by  those  who  have  a  money  interest 
in  their  success.  But  the  popularity  of  such  books 
is  but  the  wonder  of  a  day.  No  book  can  retain 
permanent  power  and  popularity  through  artifi- 
cial causes.  It  is  silliness  to  speak  of  the  Bible 
as  the  mere  offspring  of  superstition,  maintained 
in  its  place  from  age  to  age  through  the  mere  force 
of  tradition — the  dead  weight  of  conservatism.  A 
book  that  for  eighteen  centuries  has  run  the 
gauntlet  of  every  variety  both  of  rude  assault  and 
of  subtle  criticism  ;  a  book  that  has  thrown  its 
pages  open  to  every  eye,  that  has  challenged  the 
reverence  of  the  highest,  and  defied  the  scorn  of 
the  proudest ;  a  book  that  has  not  hesitated  to 


62  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

assert  its  claim  as  the  record  of  God's  revelation 
for  man's  redemption  and  the  expression  of  what 
God  requires  of  man  on  pain  of  everlasting 
death — such  a  book,  retaining  its  high  place  for 
eighteen  centuries,  cannot  but  possess  intrinsic 
qualities  of  the  highest  order.  It  is  undeniable 
that  it  has  an  extraordinary  vitality.  It  never 
becomes  antiquated,  never  survives  its  usefulness, 
never  acquires  a  decrepit  look:  "Time  writes  no 
wrinkles  on  its  brow;"  it  nourishes  in  the  vigor 
of  immortal  youth.  In  the  spirit  of  Voltaire,  infi- 
dels may  boast  that  erelong  its  day  will  be  over; 
they  may  foretell  that  the  time  is  coming  when 
Bible  beliefs  and  Bible  worship  will  have  been 
laid  aside  by  the  people  of  this  country  as  thor- 
oughly as  the  worship  of  Jupiter  and  Apollo  by 
the  old  pagans,  and  the  rites  of  Druidism  by  our 
distant  ancestors,  have  been  abandoned.  But  even 
on  the  ordinary  principles  of  human  nature  these 
prophecies  are  worthless.  The  vitality  that  has 
survived  eighteen  centuries  must  be  vitality  of  no 
common  type.  There  may  be  ups  and  downs  in 
the  history  of  the  Bible:  Amalek  may  prevail  to- 
day, and  Israel  to-morrow;  the  tide  is  subject  to 
ebbs  and  flows ;  but  Christians  may  rest  in  full 
assurance  of  one  thing,  that  when  the  end  of  all 
comes  the  Bible  will  be  found  on  no  lower  level 
than  it  occupies  to-day:  new  proof  will  be  given 


THE   VITALITY  OF   THE    BIBLE.  63 

of  its  unexampled  quality  as  "  the  Word  of  God 
that  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever. ' ' 

Our  purpose  in  this  tract  is  to  inquire  into  the 
nature  and  causes  of  this  remarkable  phenome- 
non. The  simple  fact  that  the  Bible  has  pos- 
sessed such  vitality  is  in  itself  striking ;  but  the 
more  the  subject  is  investigated  in  all  its  rela- 
tions and  circumstances,  the  more  remarkable 
will  it  appear,  and  the  more  conclusive  will  be 
the  proof  that  "the  Word  of  God  liveth  and  abi- 
deth for  ever." 

I. 

In  the  first  place,  let  us  turn  our  attention  to 
the  past  and  consider  the  origin  and  structure  of 
the  Bible.  What  is  this  book — commonly  called 
par  excellence,  "the  Book"— the  Bible?  What  is 
its  past  history?  How  did  it  come*into  exist- 
ence? And  what  has  been  its  fortune  in  the 
world  during  the  time  that  it  has  existed  here  ? 

Nothing  can  be  more  striking  than  its  external 
history.  Without  going  into  any  disputed  ques- 
tion, we  may  say  that  in  the  history  of  books  the' 
Bible  stands  unexampled  for  the  time  over  which 
its  composition  extended  and  the  variety  and 
number  of  its  authors.  It  is  not  a  single  book, 
but  a  collection  of  sixty -six  books,  longer  or 
shorter.  These  were  not  written  at  one  time,  but 


64  THE   VITALITY  OF   THE    BIBLE. 

during  a  period  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  hundred 
years — not  very  much  less  than  the  duration  of 
the  Christian  era.  They  were  not  written  by 
members  of  any  single  caste  or  class ;  not,  like 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Egyptians,  for  example, 
by  members  of  the  priestly  caste,  living  by  them- 
selves, understanding  each  other's  plans  and  proj- 
ects, and  handing  down  from  age  to  age  the  tra- 
ditions that  gave  unity  to  their  policy.  They 
were  written  by  all  sorts  of  persons  and  in  all 
sorts  of  places ;  by  prophets,  priests,  kings,  gov- 
ernors, prime  ministers,  herdmen,  fishermen,  pub- 
licans, physicians,  pharisees.  They  were  written 
in  different  languages,  most  in  Hebrew,  many  in 
Greek,  and  a  few  portions  in  Chaldee.  Some  of 
the  books  are  in  the  form  of  history,  some  of  biog- 
raphy; some  are  poems,  songs,  visions,  allegories; 
some  are  didactic  treatises,  some  are  familiar  let- 
ters, some  theological  treatises,  and  some  pro- 
phetic forecasts.  In  the  desert  of  Sinai  and  the 
wilderness  of  Judaea;  in  the  cave  of  Adullam,  in 
the  public  prison  of  Rome,  and  in  the  island  of 
Patmos;  in  the  palaces  of  Mount  Zion  and  Shu- 
shan;  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  with  harps  hang- 
ing on  the  willows,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Che- 
bar,  under  shadow  of  the  great  fortress  of  Carche- 
mish;  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  built  up  again 
from  its  ruins,  and  amid  the  music  of  boys  and 


THE  VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.  65 

girls  playing  in  the  streets  thereof — in  such  a  vast 
variety  of  places  and  circumstances  were  the  vari- 
ous bits  of  this  strange  mosaic  constructed.  No 
other  literary  phenomenon  in  all  the  world  can  be 
compared  to  this. 

Yet  the  sixty-six  pieces  do  form  one  book;  the 
mosaic  *is  a  connected  whole.  But  how  was  the 
connection  secured  ?  If  we  should  conceive  that 
in  England,  from  the  fourth  century  to  the  nine- 
teenth, sixty-six  pieces  of  writing  had  been  pre- 
pared by  about  half  that  number  of  men,  by  kings, 
priests,  scholars,  peasants,  fishermen,  and  the  like, 
having  no  special  connection  with  each  other,  can 
it  be  supposed  that  they  would  now  form  a  homo- 
geneous whole,  a  volume  that  might  be  bound 
together,  and  that  we  could  read  right  on  in  our 
closets,  in  our  families,  and  in  our  churches,  with- 
out any  sense  of  abrupt  transition  or  of  positive 
contradiction  ?  Yet  this  has  been  the  history  of 
the  Bible.  Must  not  an  unseen  Power  have  moved 
so  various  a  band  of  writers  ? 

And,  what  is  still  more  remarkable,  the  au- 
thors of  the  Bible,  though  so  diverse  as  we  have 
seen,  were  all  connected  with  one  small  country, 
and  were  much  bound  up  in  it  and  in  the  people 
that  dwelt  in  it;  their  thoughts  gathered  round  its 
history,  and  their  writings  are  crowded  with  allu- 
sions to  its  hills  and  valleys,  its  streams  and  lakes 

5 


65  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

and  little  brooks,  its  towns  and  villages — even  its 
individual  trees,  rocks,  caves,  and  gardens.  In  a 
sense  it  is  a  very  local  book,  provincial,  nay,  pa- 
rochial in  its  details;  yet  it  has  been  accepted  and 
adopted  by  all  civilized  nations;  it  is  our  book  in 
this  land  as  much  as  it  ever  was  the  Jews'  book  in 
Palestine;  by  some  marvellous  process  of  adapta- 
tion it  has  become  by  far  the  most  catholic  book 
in  the  world. 

Let  us  dwell  for  a  moment  on  this  world-wide 
repute  which  the  book  has  attained.  Though 
eighteen  hundred  years  have  elapsed  since  the 
last  parts  of  it  were  written,  it  is  reverenced  to- 
day as  profoundly  as  it  ever  was  in  Judaea,  and  it 
is  found  as  useful  for  practical  purposes  as  it  was 
by  those  who  first  listened  to  its  message.  It  has 
been  welcomed  and  honored  by  Jew  and  Greek, 
barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  and  free.  It  has  been 
translated  into  some  two  hundred  languages  of 
the  globe.  Great  societies  exist  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  multiplying  versions  and  copies,  which 
are  produced  in  millions  year  after  year.  In  most 
cases  the  translation  of  the  Bible  has  been  an  era 
in  the  history  of  the  language  into  which  it  has 
been  rendered,  fixing  its  grammar,  enlarging  its 
scope,  and  refining  its  quality.  In  the  more  civil- 
ised countries  where  it  is  received  it  is  not  enough 
to  have  a  single  version  of  it;  scholar  after  scholar 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.  67 

tries  to  improve  the  rendering,  and,  as  we  have 
said,  companies  of  revisers  sit  and  labor  for  years 
in  the  endeavor  to  give  a  more  exact  meaning  of 
the  original  phrase.  Other  scholars,  like  Tisch- 
endorf,  wander  hither  and  thither,  rummaging 
among  the  driest  parchments,  the  most  time-worn 
fragments  of  ancient  writings;  and  if  they  chance 
to  discover  some  very  old  and  musty  manuscript 
of  a  part  of  the  Bible,  words  cannot  tell  their  de- 
light, nor  can  figures  express  the  value  of  the  dis- 
covery. If,  by  some  rare  concurrence  of  circum- 
stances, there  should  be  discovered  the  original 
manuscript  of  any  book  of  the  Bible,  it  would  be 
welcomed  like  a  treasure  direct  from  heaven — it 
would  be  by  far  the  most  sacred  possession  that 
earth  contains. 

Of  the  sixty-six  books  there  is  hardly  one  on 
which  commentaries  have  not  been  written  that 
would  fill  a  library.  Were  we  to  set  about  com- 
puting all  the  literature  that  has  sprung  from  the 
Bible,  we  should  be  more  baffled  than  in  trying 
to  count  the  stars  of  heaven.  Were  we  to  glance 
at  the  history  of  art,  to  try  to  reckon  all  the  paint- 
ings of  the  first  quality  that  have  been  founded 
on  Bible  scenes,  or  the  music  that  has  been  in- 
spired by  Bible  truths,  or  the  poetry  that  has 
owed  its  soul  to  Bible  influence,  or  the  civiliza- 
tions it  has  moulded,  or  the  legislations  it  has 


68  THE  VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.. 

controlled,  or  the  institutions  it  has  created,  we 
should  hardly  be  less  perplexed. 

And  what  a  power  the  Bible  is  in  individual 
and  family  life  !  Usually  it  is  the  first  book  a 
child  is  taught  to  know;  it  is  the  last  on  the 
pillow  of  the  dying.  The  young  man  beginning 
life  reads  it  to  arm  himself  against  temptation; 
the  old  man  ending  life  reads  it  to  comfort  him- 
self under  sorrow,  to  stave  off  the  desolation  of 
bereavement,  and  to  create  anew  that  charm  of 
hope  which  keeps  the  heart  young  when  all  else 
is  old. 

Can  all  this  be  the  result  of  sheer  superstition 
and  misguided  imagination  ?  Have  so  many 
generations  of  men  been  the  dupes  of  one  gigan- 
tic fraud,  dancing  after  a  will-o'-the-wisp,  imag- 
ining that  they  had  found  a  treasure,  in  reality 
as  baseless  as  any  child's  dream  of  fairyland  ?  Is 
there  not  something  more  than  remarkable,  some- 
thing quite  unexampled,  in  the  past  history  of 
this  book  ?  Such  a  history  and  such  an  influence, 
must  it  not -possess  a  far  more  than  human  vitali- 
ty; must  it  not  really  be  "the  Word  of  God  that 
liveth  and  abideth  for  ever"? 

II. 

From  its  past  history  let  us  proceed  to  exam- 
ine the  book  itself,  to  search  out  its  contents  and 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.  69 

investigate  its  distinctive  character.  What  is 
the  great  burden  of  its  message?  What  consti- 
tutes its  vital  unity,  giving  a  common  character 
to  Genesis  and  revelation,  to  Joshua  and  the 
Acts,  to  Chronicles  and  Corinthians,  to  Isaiah  and 
Paul  ?  The  answer  to  these  questions  opens  a  wide 
door,  and  to  be  given  fully  would  need  a  treatise. 
And  yet  there  is  one  short  answer  to  them,  one 
that  is  well  adapted  to  throw  light  on  our  present 
inquiry  into  the  vitality  of  the  book.  If  we  were 
asked  to  say  in  a  single  word,  What  is  the  great 
burden  of  the  Bible  message  to  man?  What  is 
the  aspect  of  God's  character,  or  his  attitude  to- 
wards man,  that  dominates  the  whole  Bible?  our 
reply  would  be:  "GoD  DRAWING  NEAR  TO  MAN 

IN  THE  WAY  OF  GRACE,  AND  ENCOURAGING  HIM 
TO  HOPE  IN  HIS  MERCY  THROUGH  A  MEDIATOR. 

To  illustrate  this,  let  us  take  the  first  scene 
after  the  fall  in  Paradise.  "The  L'ord  God  called 
unto  Adam  and  said,  Where  art  thou?"  Gen. 
3:9.  This  may  be  regarded  as  the  germ  of  the 
whole  Bible.  Man  has  fallen,  and,  afraid  of  God, 
has  hid  himself;  but  God  comes  to  look  for  him, 
and  hold  out  the  hope  of  mercy  to  him  after  all. 
In  this  passage  we  have  God  seeking  after  guilty, 
ruined  man.  He  might  have  left  him  to  his  fate, 
but  he  does  not  He  comes  down  to  the  garden 
which  man  has  desecrated  by  sin,  and  he  calls  to 


70  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE    BIBLE. 

him,  trembling  in  his  hiding-place.  No  doubt 
he  pronounces  on  Adam  the  sentence  of  the  crimi- 
nal, and  he  drives  him  out  of  Paradise.  But  this 
is  not  all.  A  door  of  hope  is  opened  in  the  sen- 
tence inflicted  on  the  tempter:  "  The  seed  of  the 
woman  shall  bruise  thy  head."  Man  is  not  to 
be  abandoned  to  this  enemy;  deliverance  is  to 
come  to  him  through  his  own  seed.  We  shall 
speak  afterwards  of  this  promise;  meanwhile  what 
we  dwell  on  is  the  fact  that  after  he  has  fallen 
God  approaches  him,  no  doubt  with  a  word  of 
judgment,  but  also  with  a  word  of  cheer  and 
hope.  This,  we  say,  is  the  essence  of  the  whole 
Bible. 

From  Genesis  to  Revelation  we  find  the  same 
thing — God  looking  down  on  man  while  strug- 
gling in  the  billows  of  sin  and  guilt,  and  stretch- 
ing out  His  hand  to  save  him.  From  first  to  last 
the  Shepherd  goes  among  the  mountains  to  seek 
for  the  sheep  that  was  lost.  One  of  the  wonder- 
ful felicities  of  the  three  parables  of  our  Lord — 
the  lost  sheep,  the  lost  piece  of  silver,  and  the 
lost  son — was  that  they  at  once  summed  up  the 
whole  history  of  the  past,  indicated  the  great 
transaction  of  the  present,  and  foretold  the  history 
of  the  future.  They  brought  into  a  focus  the 
whole  story  of  God's  dealings  with  man.  In 
another  sense  these  dealings  were  brought  to  a 


THE   VITALITY  OF   THE   BIBLE.  J\ 

focus  in  the  cross  of  Christ.  Jesus  was  the  subject 
of  his  own  parables.  The  history  of  the  past, 
and  particularly  the  history  of  Israel,  showed  that 
God  had  never  abandoned  man — that  he  had 
gone  after  him,  through  all  his  wanderings  and  all 
his  wickedness,  in  order  to  recover  him  and  lead 
him  back  to  the  true  fountain  of  living  waters. 
The  incarnation  and  the  crucifixion  showed  the 
climax  of  the  divine  solicitude  for  the  restoration 
of  man.  Not  only  did  God  dwell  among  men 
in  the  person  of  his  Son,  not  only  did  he  become 
one  with  the  race,  but  he  bore  the  penalty  of 
their  transgression,  in  order  that  he  might  save 
them.  "God  commendeth  his  love  towards  us, 
in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for 
us."  The  greatest  event  in  Bible  history  is  just 
the  summing  up  of  all  that  preceded  it.  The 
Good  Shepherd  who  had  all  along  been  following 
the  sheep  came  nearer  to  them  than  ever,  and 
suffered  in  their  room  that  their  sins  might  be 
forgiven,  and  that  they  might  be  led  to  the  green 
pastures  and  still  waters  of  eternal  life. 

Let  us  glance  along  the  Old  Testament  his- 
tory, and  see  whether  this  was  not  God's  attitude 
from  the  beginning.  We  have  seen  that  when  he 
sent  man  out  of  Paradise  he  did  not  leave  him  to 
fall  constantly  more  and  more  under  the  power  of 
his  enemy  till  he  should  be  hopelessly  ruined,  but 


72  THE   VITALITY  OF   THE   BIBLE. 

gave  him  a  door  of  hope,  gave  him  reason  to  trust 
in  his  mercy.  Notwithstanding  all  God  did,  how- 
ever, corruption  increased  among  men ;  they  came 
to  the  very  verge  of  extinction,  the  water  of  the 
flood  seemed  to  threaten  universal  death ;  but  God 
drew  near  to  Noah  in  the  way  of  grace,  and  en- 
couraged him,  as  he  had  encouraged  Adam,  to 
hope  in  his  mercy.  Again,  however,  after  the 
flood,  the  process  of  corruption  set  in;  idolatry 
became  rampant,  even  in  the  plains  of  Mesopota- 
mia; but  God  again  interposed  in  the  way  of  grace, 
rescued  Abraham  from  the  idolatry  of  his  breth- 
ren, and  made  a  covenant  with  him,  promising 
that  in  him  and  in  his  seed  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  should  be  blessed.  The  covenant  was  re- 
newed to  the  patriarchs,,  and  under  its  protection 
the  family  of  Israel  went  to  sojourn  in  Egypt 
But  the  trouble  now  did  not  set  in  from  within ; 
persecution  came  from  without :  and  again  God 
drew  near  in  the  way  of  grace,  delivering  his  peo- 
ple from  Hgypt,  and  giving  them  encouragement 
in  ways  without  'number  to  hope  in  his'  mercy. 
Ages  rolled  on;  after  they  were  settled  in  Canaan 
new  revelations  of  the  divine  mercy  were  given; 
songs  of  redemption,  calling  on  Israel  to  hope  in 
the  Lord,  for  with  the  Lord  there  was  mercy  and 
with  him  was  plenteous  redemption,  became  na- 
tional songs  for  the  people,  and  in  their  sacred 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE)   BIBLE.  73 

books  revelations  of  the  coming  redemption  be- 
came brighter  and  clearer.  But  if  God  was  reveal- 
ing himself  more  clearly,  the  force  of  corruption 
was  working  more  intensely  ;  chastisement  fol- 
lowed, till  the  whole  head  was  sick  and  the  whole 
heart  faint;  the  mighty  Nebuchadnezzar  dragged 
into  captivity  to  Babylon  nearly  all  who  had  been 
spared  by  the  sword,  pestilence,  and  famine. 

But  the  same  God  who  came  to  seek  for  Adam 
among  the  trees  of  the  garden  came  to  seek  for 
Israel  beside  the  rivers  of  Babylon.  He  drew  near 
to  them  again  in  the  way  of  grace,  and  invited 
them  anew  to  hope  in  his  mercy.  He  turned 
back  the  captivity  of  Zion  and  restored  the  holy 
city.  Yet  new  forms  of  corruption  came  in  like 
a  flood,  the  heart  and  soul  declined  from  God's 
service,  and  the  foremost  professors  of  religion 
became  like  whited  sepulchres  full  of  dead  men's 
bones.  Once  more  God  drew  nigh,  and,  as  we 
have  said,  in  a  form  unexampled  and  complete: 
God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  proved  the  in- 
finite riches  of  His  grace  by  dying  for  men,  the 
Just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  them  to 
God. 

This  was  the  final  lesson.  Nothing  plainer, 
nothing  higher,  nothing  fuller,  could  ever  be 
shown.  The  cross  was  the  climax  of  all  the  past, 
as  it  was  the  fountain-head  of  all  the  future. 


74  THE   VITALITY   OF  THE    BIBLE. 

After  Christ,  every  member  of  his  kingdom  was 
charged  in  a  measure  to  proclaim  the  grace  of 
God  and  invite  men  to  hope  in  his  mercy.  uL,et 
him  that  heareth  say,  Come,"  was  the  rule  of  the 
kingdom;  while  men  were  set  apart  as  ambassa- 
dors of  the  great  King,  to  go  into  all  the  world 
and  proclaim  the  good  news  to  every  creature,  to 
proclaim  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to 
himself,  and  not  imputing  unto  men  their  tres- 
passes, and  to  beseech  them,  in  Christ's  stead,  to 
be  reconciled  to  God. 

This,  we  say,  is  the  great  feature  of  the  whole 
Bible.  If  we  read  what  may  be  called  the  u  ret- 
rospective psalms" — those  in  which  the  poet  re- 
hearses the  past  history  of  the  nation,  we  find 
them  quite  in  this  strain.  In  a  long  series  of  al- 
ternating clauses  he  contrasts  the  ever-returning 
backslidings  of  the  people  with  the  ever-enduring 
mercy  of  Jehovah.  "  Many  times  did  he  deliver 
them;  but  they  provoked  him  with  their  counsel, 
and  were  brought  low  for  their  iniquity.  Never- 
theless he  regarded  their  affliction  when  he  heard 
their  cry:  and  he  remembered  for  them  his  cove- 
nant, and  repented  according  to  the  multitude  of 
his  mercies."  What  fonder  or  more  attractive 
attitude  could  God  be  seen  in?  Ever  yearning 
after  his  foolish  children;  grieved  for  their  folly 
and  wickedness,  and  grieved  for  the  misery  that 


THE  VITALITY  OF  THE    BIBLE-  75 

they  drew  upon  themselves;  watching  his  oppor- 
tunity to  speak  kindly  and  comfortably  to  them, 
and  eager  above  all  things  to  get  a  welcome  from 
them  when  with  plaintive  voice  he  should  make 
his  appeal,  "Turn  ye,  turn  ye  from  your  evil 
ways,  for  why  will  ye  die,  O  house  of  Israel  ?' ' 

It  was  the  remark  of  an  eminent  man  that  "in 
other  religions  we  see  man  seeking  after  God;  in 
the  Bible  we  see  God  seeking  after  man."  Is  it 
not  a  most  interesting  and  blessed  feature?  Sure- 
ly our  hearts  may  well  cling  to  the  book  that 
shows  the  high  and  lofty  One  that  inhabiteth  eter- 
nity, and  whose  name  is  holy,  humbling  himself 
to  behold  the  earth,  and  drawing  near  in  grace 
and  mercy  to  save,  to  cleanse,  and  to  bless.  And 
well  may  we  cling  to  that  part  of  the  book  which 
is  emphatically  named  "the  Gospel" — the  good 
news  that  not  only  tells  us  of  grace  abounding, 
but  shows  us  God's  eternal  Son  as  the  messenger 
of  that  grace;  ay,  and  shows  him  pouring  out  his 
soul  unto  death,  that  the  channel  might  be  opened 
in  which  that  grace  should  flow. 

But  how  are  we  to  account  for  this  feature  of 
the  Bible  ?  How  comes  it  that  from  Genesis  to 
Revelation  we  have  such  a  disclosure  of  the  divine 
heart,  such  a  view  of  the  divine  Being  bending 
over  his  erring  children  in  order  to  arrest  and  save 
them  ?  How  did  this  conception  of  God  come  into 


76  THE   VITALITY   OF   THE    BIBI.E. 

the  hearts  of  the  writers?  And  how  did  it  come 
to  be  associated  with  the  idea  of  a  God  most  right- 
eous and  holy,  in  whose  eyes  evil  cannot  dwell 
and  fools  cannot  stand  ? 

Certainly  it  is  not  man's  natural  conception  of 
God.  It  is  not  the  conception  furnished  in  any 
other  religion  or  in  any  other  so-called  sacred 
book.  How,  then,  came  it  into  the  heart  of  so 
many  writers  in  succession,  and  how  came  they, 
at  the  last  stage  of  development,  to  hit  on  the  idea 
of  the  incarnation  and  the  cross?  The  natural 
idea  of  man  is  that  God  is  irritated;  that  he  is  not 
merely  vexed  at  his  sin,  bjit  that  he  feels  bitter 
towards  the  sinner,  and  that  he  is  eager  to  punish 
him.  Even  with  the  Bible  in  our  hands  it  is  often 
very  difficult  to  uproot  the  feeling  that  God  feels 
bitter  towards  us.  The  deeper  our  sense  of  sin, 
the  more  are  we  disposed  to  think  that  God  has  a 
personal  aversion  to  us.  We  think  that  he  must 
regard  us  as  so  many  sources  of  annoyance  and 
trouble,  and  we  shrink  from  meeting  him  as  we 
shrink  from  meeting  any  man  of  power  and  im- 
portance whom  we  know  that  we  have  injured 
and  provoked. 

Now,  the  question  is,  How  came  the  writers 
of  the  Bible  to  have  so  different  a  conception  of 
God  ?  How  came  they  at  once  to  intensify  God's 
righteousness,  God's  hatred  of  sin,  and  yet  to  strip 


THE   VITALITY   OF   THE    BIBLE.  77 

his  feeling  towards  the  sinner  of  all  bitterness — 
nay,  more,  to  bathe  it,  as  it  were,  in  love  ?  How 
came  they  all,  more  or  less,  to  have  this  feeling, 
so  that,  as  we  have  seen,  God  is  presented  through- 
out as  drawing  near  to  the  sinner  in  the  way  of 
grace,  and  encouraging  him,  unworthy  though  he 
is,  to  hope  in  his  mercy  ?  How  came  they  to  see 
what,  outside  the  Bible,  men  have  never  been 
able  to  see  with  any  clearness,  mercy  and  truth 
met  together,  righteousness  and  peace  embracing 
each  other?  And  how  came  they  to  bring  all 
these  lines  of  teaching  to  a  focus  in  the  person, 
the  life,  the  parables,  the  miracles,  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Is  it  not  plain  that 
behind  and  beneath  the  human  authorship  of  the 
Bible  it  is  pervaded  throughout  by  an  unseen 
influence  from  heaven?  that  it  does  not  stand, 
like  other  books,  on  the  mere  gifts  and  attain- 
ments of  its  human  authors,  but  was  designed  to 
be,  what  it  ever  has  been  and  ever  will  be,  the 
organ  of  the  Holy  Ghost  for  enlightening  and 
saving  men — "the  Word  of  God,  which  liveth 
and  abideth  for  ever. ' ' 

But  even  the  most  cursory  view  of  the  great 
purport  of  the  Bible  would  be  essentially  deficient 
if  we  did  not  take  into  account  what  it  says  of  the 
particular  way  of  mercy  God  has  appointed  for 
sinful  men.  For  it  is  not  the  lesson  of  the  Bible 


78  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE    BIBLE. 

that  God's  mercy  comes  to  men  directly  and  im- 
mediately; it  comes  by  a  channel  of  its  own.  It 
is  not  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  that  to  forgive  sin 
costs  God  nothing  more  than  an  act  of  forbearance 
and  forgiveness  costs  us  when  we  have  sustained 
an  injury.  Mercy  to  the  guilty  comes  from  God 
through  the  mediation  of  another.  There  is  al- 
ways a  third  party  in  the  transaction.  To  make 
our  view  more  complete,  therefore,  of  the  chief 
feature  of  the  Bible,  we  must  add  another  clause — 
its  object,  as  we  have  said,  is  to  show  God  draw- 
ing near  to  man  in  the  way  of  grace,  and  encour- 
aging him  to  hope  in  his  mercy  —  but  always 

THROUGH  A  MEDIATOR. 

It  is  not  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  that  through 
.mere  efforts  of  his  own  man  is  to  reinstate  him- 
self in  all  that  he  has  lost.  Nor  is  it  the  doctrine 
of  Scripture  that  by  some  general  law  of  develop- 
ment and  improvement  things  are  to  come  round 
and  all  is  to  be  well  again.  Nor,  still  further,  is 
it  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  that  God  is  to  restore 
all  things  in  the  same  way  in  which  in  nature  he 
restores  the  stripped  tree  or  the  trodden  grass  or 
the  fever-stricken  body.  There  was  to  be  a  special 
agent  of  restoration — a  man,  yet  more  than  man, 
having  the  very  attributes  and  properties  of  God. 
The  serpent  was  to  be  crushed  by  the  seed  of  the 
woman.  All  nations  were  to  be  blessed  in  Abra- 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE)   BIBLE.  79 

ham  and  his  seed.  Judah  was  to  become  some- 
how a  praise  among  his  brethren.  A  son  of  David 
was  to  reign  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  One  who  is  termed  va- 
riously the  L,ord's  Servant,  the  Lord's  Messenger, 
the  Lord's  Angel,  the  Lord's  Anointed,  was  to  be- 
come the  great  Fountain  of  benediction.  What- 
ever instalments  of  blessing  might  come  earlier, 
the  great  ocean  of  blessing  was  to  be  revealed  only 
when  He  should  come  to  dwell  with  men. 

Hence  that  feature  pf  the  Old  Testament  which 
attracts  every  eye — its  prophetic  Messianic  strain, 
its  wistful  looking  forward,  its  testimony  to  Him 
who  was  to  come.  No  other  book  is  marked  by 
any  such  feature.  Whatever  knowledge  of  the  ] 
future  might  be  claimed  under  other  religious 
systems,  prophecy  had  no  such  place  in  any  of 
them  as  it  has  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  Pagan 
religions  might  claim  to  possess  a  certain  knowl- 
edge of  the  future;  the  soothsayer  might  pretend 
to  divine  the  course  of  things,  or  the  mysterious 
voice  from  the  shrine  of  Delphi  might  utter  some 
forecast  of  a  coming  event.  But  in  no  ancient 
book  or  ancient  religion  do  we  find  any  parallel 
to  that  stream  of  Messianic  prediction  which  runs 
through  the  whole  Old  Testament.  Nowhere 
else  is  there  such  a  looking  forward  to  a  definite 
event  in  the  future  that  was  to  constitute  the 


8o  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

turning-point  in  the  world's  history,  or  to  the 
coming  of  One  who,  while  a  man,  \vas  to  be  much 
more  than  a  man,  who  was  to  complete  the  econ- 
omy of  redemption  and  bring  to  perfection  God's 
dispensation  of  grace. 

The  figure  of  this  great  Mediator  of  blessing  is 
conspicuous  through  all  Scripture.  The  Old  Tes- 
tament looks  forward  to  him;  in  the  Gospels  he  is 
present;  while  the  Epistles  look  back  on  him,  and 
at  the  same  time  present  the  hope  of  another  ad- 
vent, yet  to  be  realized.  In  the  Bible  the  history 
of  the  world  thus  acquires  a  unity  which  it  never 
attains  in  any  other  way.  Men  of  great  intellect 
struggle  hard  to  unravel  the  tangled  web  of  hu- 
man events,  and  to  find  amid  all  their  diversities 
and  vicissitudes  something  like  a  beginning,  a 
middle,  and  an  end.  The  problem  that  baffles 
the  human  intellect  is  solved  with  ease  in  the 
Bible.  The  .first  long  and  often  dark  chapters  of 
history  prepare  the  way  for  the  coming  of  Christ, 
and  after  his  advent  history  describes  the  progress 
of  his  kingdom,  which  is  one  day  to  be  coexten- 
sive with  the  habitable  earth.  There  is  no  doubt 
what  constitutes  the  centre  of  things  in  Scripture. 
All  eyes  look  in  one  direction,  and  find  in  the  ad- 
vent of  Jesus  the  central  fact  in  the  world's  his- 
tory. 

The  prominence  of  Christ  in  the  Bible,  in  the 


THE   VITALITY   OF   THE    BIBLE.  8 1 

Old  Testament  as  well  as  the  New,  and  the  sig- 
nificance of  his  function  as  the  divine  agent  of 
grace  and  blessing,  the  great  Restorer  and  Re- 
deemer, the  Way  and  the  Truth  and-  the  Life, 
go  far  to  account  for  its  vitality  and  vindicate  its 
claims  as  the  inspired  Word  of  God.  It  comforts 
men  to  think  of  God  as  drawing  near  to  them  in 
an  attitude  of  grace  and  mercy;  but  it  more  than 
comforts  them,  it  satisfies  them,  to  dwell  on  the 
thought  of  Christ,  in  whom  divine  grace  was  so 
gloriously  revealed,  not  merely  in  the  words  he 
spoke,  the  promises  he  made,  and  the  life  of  love 
and  sympathy  he  led,  but  preeminently  in  the 
death  he  died — "the  Just  for  the  unjust,  to  bring 
them  to  God."  Studying  the  revelation  of  the 
Father  in  the  Son,  they  are  not  only  assured  that 
they  have  rightly  understood  the  divine  attitude 
as  seen  in  the  fainter  light  of  the  Old  Testament, 
but  they  see  the  harmony  of  God's  attributes  in 
the  whole  transaction  ;  the  entire  plan  of  grace 
reflects  his  high  perfections,  and  glows  with  the 
lustre  of  heaven.  So  long  as  men  who  feel  that 
they  have  wandered  from  God  can  appreciate  the 
love  that  has  followed  them  with  outstretched 
arms  and  a  father's  yearning  heart;  and  so  long 
as  they  find  this  to  be  His  attitude  in  every  part 
of  the  Bible,  and  preeminently  in  those  parts 
where  either  directly  or  symbolically  Jesus  Christ 

6 


82  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

is  set  forth  as  the  channel  of  divine  grace  and 
blessing,  the  Bible  cannot  but  retain  its  vitality, 
cannot  but  vindicate  its  character  as  the  Word  of 
God  that  kveth  and  abideth  for  ever.  As  explain- 
ing, too,  in  some  measure,  the  history  of  the 
world,  and  showing  the  development  of  the  di- 
vine plan  for  gathering  together  in  Christ  the 
shattered  fragments  of  humanity,  building  up  the 
ruined  temple  upon  Christ  as  the  chief  corner- 
stone, and  giving  something  of  unity  and  dignity 
to  the  history  of  the  world,  it  must  be  felt  that 
the  Bible  has  preeminent  claims  to  the  respect 
and  the  confidence  of  men. 

No  doubt  it  is  denied  by  rationalists  that  Jesus 
Christ  occupies  in  the  whole  Bible  that  place  of 
preeminence  which  we  have  claimed  for  him. 
What  are  called  the  Messianic  prophecies,  it  is 
maintained  are  not  such  really,  but  acquire  that 
character  by  men  reading  into  them  what  they 
find  in  the  Gospels.  The  idea  of  a  Messianic 
age,  they  say,  so  far  as  the  Old  Testament  pre- 
sents it,  is  merely  the  expression  of  that  hope  in 
a  good  time  coming  which  is  natural  to  the  heart 
of  man.  It  is  natural  for  the  oppressed  to  look 
forward  to  deliverance.  It  is  natural  for  the  sick 
to  hope  for  health.  In  stormy  weather  it  is  natu- 
ral to  look  for  the  return  of  calm  and  sunshine. 
The  Messianic  prophecies,  so  called,  were  just  the 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.  83 

embodiment  of  these  hopes  cast  in  a  more  vivid 
form  than  the  common.  The  Hebrew  nation  had 
more  hopefulness  than  most,  and  these  prophetic 
dreams  of  Paradise  regained  were  simply  the  out- 
come of  sanguine  temperaments  fashioning  their 
fond  imaginings  of  the  future  in  forms  of  unusual 
beauty. 

But  were  the  Hebrews  a  particularly  hopeful 
people  ?  Hopefulness  is  not  a  usual  characteristic 
of  Eastern  nations,  which  are  remarkable  for  their 
tendency  to  live  in  the  present  and  their  compar- 
ative unconcern  for  the  future.  And  as  for  the 
Hebrews,  it  cannot  be  said  that  as  a  nation  it  was 
their  habit,  under  the  pressure  of  present  trouble, 
to  dwell  hopefully  on  a  brighter  future.  Was  it 
a  hopeful  spirit  they  showed  after  Moses  and  Aa- 
ron came  to  them  from  the  burning  bush  and  an- 
nounced God's  purpose  of  deliverance?  Was  it  a 
hopeful  spirit  they  showed  when  they  remem- 
bered the  leeks  and  the  garlic  and  the  onions,  and 
their  soul  loathed  the  light  bread  of  the  desert? 
Did  the  cry,  "  Make  us  a  captain,  that  we  may 
return  to  Egypt,"  indicate  a  hopeful  spirit?  or 
the  report  of  the  ten  spies  after  their  return  from 
searching  out  the  land?  Or  was  there  much  hope- 
fulness shown,  far  on  in  their  history,  when,  after 
the  proclamation  of  Cyrus  at  Babylon,  a  mere  frac- 
tion of  the  exiles  availed  themselves  of  the  offer  to 


84  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

return  to  their  land?  Not  only  is  there  no  ground 
to  say  that  the  Hebrews  as  a  nation  were  remark- 
able for  their  hopefulness,  but  the  opposite  is 
nearer  the  truth.  Where  a  spirit  of  hopefulness 
in  the  future  did  triumph  over  present  trouble,  it 
was  on  the  part  of  a  few,  and  as  the  result  of  faith 
in  the  word  of  God.  It  was  faith  in  God's  word 
that  made  Abraham  hopeful — u  who  against  hope 
believed  in  hope."  It  was  this,  too,  that  led  Mo- 
ses to  believe  in  the  coming  deliverance  of  the 
people  from  Egypt,  and  to  rouse  them  to  suitable 
action.  It  was  this  that  made  the  faithful  spies 
despise  the  gigantic  Anakim,  and  urge  the  people 
to  go  up  and  take  possession  of  the  land.  It  was 
this  that  inspired  the  bright  visions  of  Isaiah  of 
the  glory  of  the  latter  day.  The  temper  of  the 
people  leaned  to  despondency,  and  it  was  from 
the  men  that  believed  God  and  hoped  in  his  word 
that  the  glorious  visions  of  the  future  came.  To 
account  for  the  stream  of  Messianic  prophecy  in 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  by  saying  that  the  people 
had  a  hopeful  temperament,  would  be  like  ac- 
counting for  the  recent  reformation  in  the  Fiji 
Islands  by  saying  that  the  natives  had  a  benevo- 
lent and  peaceful  turn.  It  would  be  to  mistake 
the  effect  for  the  cause,  and  in  both  cases  alike 
to  overlook  the  special  action  of  the  Spirit  of 
God. 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.  85 

The  efforts  of  modern  rationalism  to  put  Christ 
out  of  the  Old  Testament  are  not  more  successful 
when  attention  is  turned  to  particular  passages  for 
which  a  Messianic  character  is  claimed.  It  is 
often  said  ^now  that  there  are  hardly  any  texts  in 
the  Old  Testament  that  have  a  distinct  reference 
to  Christ.  Bven  the  fifty- third  chapter  of  Isaiah 
is  the  subject  of  a  vehement  struggle,  almost  lu- 
dicrous from  the  variety  of  opinion  as  to  who  is 
the  subject  of  the  grophet's  discourse.  But  if  the 
Messianic  references  in  the  Old  Testament  are  so 
few  and  far  between,  how  comes  it  that  that  arch- 
rationalist,  David  Strauss,  in  trying  to  account  for 
the  rapidity  with  which  belief  in  Christ's  mira- 
cles grew  up  in  the  early  church,  laid  so  much 
stress  on  the  Messianic  predictions  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament? He  maintained  that  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances it  would  have  taken  far  longer  time  for 
the  mythical  dream  that  Christ  wrought  miracles 
to  establish  itself  as  a  fact  in  the  popular  mind, 
but  that  the  process  was  greatly  helped  and  quick- 
ened by  the  Old  Testament  predictions,  which 
ascribed  to  the  Messiah  the  performance  of  defi- 
nite miracles.  Since  these  miracles  were  ascribed 
to  him  in  the  -Old  Testament — since  it  was  said 
that  the  ears  of  the  deaf  would  be  unstopped  and 
the  eyes  of  the  blind  would  see,  that  the  lame  man 
would  leap  as  a  hart  and  the  tongue  of  the  dumb 


86  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

would  sing,  his  early  followers,  said  Strauss,  at 
once  inferred  that  such  things  must  have  been 
done  by  him.  Now,  it  were  well  for  rationalism 
to  hold  to  one  position  or  another;  it  only  exposes 
itself  to  contempt  by  maintaining  at  one  time  that 
the  so-called  Messianic  prophecies  amount  to  noth- 
ing, and  at  another  time  saying,  with  Strauss, 
that  they  were  so  clear,  full,  and  explicit  as  to  ac- 
count for  the  early  prevalence  of  the  belief  that 
numberless  miracles  were  performed  by  Christ. 

But  besides  all  this,  is  it  not  certain  that  even 
in  heathen  nations  there  prevailed  a  belief,  as 
Tacitus  and  Suetonius  testify,  that  a  great  Deliv- 
erer was  to  come  from  Judaea — a  belief  that  must 
have  sprung  from  the  Hebrew  prophecies,  spread 
over  the  world  as  they  were  through  the  Septua- 
gint  translation  ?  Did  not  our  Lord  and  his  apos- 
tles refer  often  and  openly  to  the  prophetic  parts 
of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  as  verifying  his  claims? 
Did  not  the  Jews  themselves,  for  long  centuries 
after  the  birth  of  Christ,  cling  to  the  belief  that 
their  prophets  foretold  a  personal  Messiah,  who 
should  fulfil  all  their  pictures  of  peace  and  pros- 
perity ?  And  were  not  the  early  Christians  in  the 
habit  of  referring  triumphantly  to  the  fulfilment 
in  Christ  of  the  prophetic  announcements  as  an 
ample  warrant  of  their  faith  in  him  ?  In  view  of 
such  considerations,  Christians  in  our  time  need 


THE   VITALITY   OF   THE    BIBLE.  8/ 

not  be  moved  from  the  sure  conviction  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  revealed  to  them  in  the  Old  Testament 
as  well  as  in  the  New;  that  all  through  the  Old 
Testament  he  is  represented  as  the  channel 
through  whom  God's  grace  was  to  flow  to  men, 
and  that  their  visions,  often  so  glorious,  of 
abounding  blessing  and  joy  were  due  to  the  in- 
comparable merit  and  infinite  love  of  him  in 
whom  it  had  been  promised  to  Abraham  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed. 

L,et  us  suppose  now  that  before  knowing  any- 
thing of  the  Gospels  we  had  fully  gathered  from 
the  Old  Testament  these  two  ideas — that  God  had 
all  along  been  drawing  near  to  man  in  the  way  of 
,  grace,  and  that  it  was  foretold  that  in  the  fulness 
of  time  there  was  to  appear  on  earth  that  glorious 
Being  through  whom  his  grace  was  to  be  con- 
veyed to  men;  with  what  a  strange  interest  should 
we  not  now  open  the  New  Testament  and  devour 
its  contents  to  ascertain  what  manner  of  person 
this  great  Deliverer  actually  was  !  We  could  not 
fail  to  have  very  high  expectations  of  him  ;  one 
that  should  embody  the  yearning  love  of  the  great 
Father  longing  for  his  children  ;  one  that  should 
have  power  to  atone  for  the  children's  guilt  and  to 
make  it  possible  for  their  Father  to  receive  them ; 
one  that  should  combine  the  sympathies  of  hu- 
manity with  the  glory  of  divinity;  one  that  should 


88  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

be  able  to  win  them  back  from  all  the  vanities 
that  had  fascinated  them  and  all  the  masters  that 
had  enslaved  them,  to  infuse  into  them  a  heav- 
enly temper  and  make  them  meet  for  a  heavenly 
home — what  an  exalted,  what  a  wonderful  Being 
this  must  be  !  No  mere  child  of  Adam,  however 
gifted  and  however  good,  could  fulfil  the  condi- 
tions demanded  of  one  who  was  to  embody  the 
love  of  the  Father  and  to  convey  his  grace  to 
men. 

But  how  far  are  any  conceptions  or  expecta- 
tions that  we  might  have  formed  beforehand  ex- 
ceeded by  the  reality  !  When  the  time  came  for 
the  manifestation  of  the  Messiah  there  appeared 
One  who  stands  without  peer  or  parallel  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  A  true  brother  of  humani- 
ty, yet  the  Son  of  God ;  separate  from  sinners,  yet 
the  Friend  of  sinners;  pure,  spotless  in  his  whole 
spirit  and  life,  and  breathing  forth  an  influence 
that  bore  men  up  to  the  gate  of  heaven;  diffusing 
on  every  side  health  and  benediction,  and  at  last 
laying  down  his  life  as  a  sacrifice  for  his  people's 
sins ;  rising  from  the  grave  and  ascending  into 
heaven,  yet  ruling  his  church  from  the  skies,  and 
promising  to  come  again  to  receive  them  to  him- 
self, that  where  he  was  there  they  might  also  be — 
this  is  he  whom  the  evangelists  present  to  us  as 
the  fulfilment  of  all  the  promises,  as  the  divine 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE    BIBLE.  89 

channel  of  grace  and  peace,  the  gift  of  God  to  the 
children  of  men  ! 

With  what  unerring  certainty  and  full  assu- 
rance of  faith  the  early  disciples  apprehended  the 
glorious  quality  of  this  gift  of  God !  Of  all  the 
tasks  that  rationalism  has  to  grapple  with,  none 
is  so  utterly  desperate  as  to  account  for  the  rela- 
tion that  sprang  up  between  Jesus  and  his  first 
disciples  on  the  supposition  that  there  was  nothing 
supernatural  in  his  person.  For  that  relation 
was  not  merely  the  relation  between  scholar  and 
teacher.  It  was  not  merely  the  relation  between 
servant  and  Master,  or  between  friend  and  friend. 
It  was  preeminently  the  relation  between  sinner 
and  Saviour.  They  knew  that  he  embodied  the 
Father's  love  and  that  he  was  the  channel  of  the 
Father's  grace.  They  knew  that  he  was  the  Good 
Shepherd  who  had  come  to  the  bleak,  storm- 
tossed  mountains  to  search  for  his  lost  sheep. 
They  felt  the  tender  touch,  the  fond  embrace  of 
the  Shepherd,  they  heard  his  soothing  voice,  they 
were  folded  in  his  loving  arms.  No  words  could 
have  been  more  charged  with  the  love  and  grace 
of  heaven  than  such  words  as  his — u  Be  of  good 
cheer,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee."  "Verily  I 
say  unto  thee,  this  day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in 
paradise."  To  suffer  for  him  was  a  privilege,  to 
die  for  him  the  height  of  honor.  They  were 


9O  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

"persuaded  that  neither  death  nor  life,  nor  an- 
gels, nor  principalities  nor  powers,  nor  things 
present  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height  nor  depth, 
nor  any  other  creature,"  would  be  able  to  separate 
them  from  "the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord. ' ' 

What  the  living  Jesus  was  to  those  who  lived 
in  his  days,  the  four  Gospels  and  the  other  books 
of  the  New  Testament  convey  in  some  measure  to 
those  who  have  lived  in  later  times.  Seen  through 
such  a  medium,  the  glory  is  less  dazzling  and  the 
impression  less  overwhelming:  but  on  the  other 
hand  wre  have  the  benefit  of  being  able  to  search, 
compare,  and  ponder  the  various  records,  to  learn 
more  by  thus  searching  of  the  depths  of  the  riches 
of  the  grace  and  love  of  Christ,  to  discover  from 
time  to  time  new  themes  for  wonder,  and  new 
grounds  for  reverence,  trust,  and  affection.  The 
book  whose  open  page  brings  us  into  this  gracious 
presence,  whence  comes  to  us  all  that  is  fitted  to 
quell  our  fears,  soothe  our  sorrows,  purify  our 
hearts,  and  transform  our  lives,  is  surely  not  des- 
tined to  be  forgotten:  while  men  live  needing  the 
grace  and  love  of  heaven,  it  must  prove  to  be 
"the  Word  of  God  that  liveth  and  abideth  for 
ever. ' ' 

And  further,  when  the  light  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  thrown  back  on  the  Old,  new  beauties 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE    BIBLE.  91 

are  found  in  nearly  every  page.  Glimpses  are 
seen  of  Him  who  is  by  far  the  most  glorious,  as  he 
is  also  by  far  the  most  precious,  personage  that 
sinners  of  mankind  can  have  to  do  with.  Nor  is 
this  the  result  of  mere  sentiment  or  fancy.  If 
God  inspired  the  prophets  to  write  of  Christ,  even 
though  it  was  often  dimly  and  indefinitely,  now 
that  we  know  more  of  him  we  may  trace  his 
features,  we  may  get  glimpses  of  his  face,  in  many 
an  Old  Testament  page.  And  this  is  not  a  mere 
work  of  supererogation.  We  ought  not  to  say 
that,  inasmuch  as  the  New  Testament  presents 
Christ  manifest  in  the  flesh,  it  is  but  wasting  our 
time  to  look  for  him  in  the  types  and  shadows  of 
the  old  economy.  The  remark  is  shallow,  and 
very  untrue  to  our  nature.  When  objects  are 
dear  to  us,  and  much  more  living  persons,  we 
delight  to  find  resemblances  to  them  even  in 
reflections  and  shadows.  The  clouds  of  the  morn- 
ing are  beautiful,  but  not  less  interesting  are  the 
shadows  they  cast  on  the  mountains,  now  swath- 
ing them  in  solemn,  motionless  folds,  now  scud- 
ding along  their  bosoms  one  after  another,  as  the 
birds  in  playful  glee  chase  each  other  in  the  air. 
It  is  delightful  on  the  calm  autumn  evening  to 
gaze  on  the  stately  crag,  clothed  and  crowned 
with  its  feathery  foliage,  rising  abrupt  from  the 
edge  of  the  placid  lake;  is  it  less  so  to  gaze  on  its 


Q2  THE   VITALITY   OF   THE    BIBLE. 

marvellous  reflection  beneath  the  surface,  and  see 
how  not  a  twig  or  leaf  wants  its  counterpart 
there? 

"  The  swan  on  still  St.  Mary's  lake 
Floats  double — swan  and  shadow." 

Who  does  not  like  to  trace  the  faint  resem- 
blance of  a  beloved  parent  or  child,  whether  in 
some  dim  ancestral  portrait  of  a  former  genera- 
tion, or  in  the  youthful  face  of  a  living  descend- 
ant? What  man  of  science  does  not  delight 
to  find  in  the  less  perfect  forms  of  animated  na- 
ture analogies  however  faint  to  the  more  perfect? 
How  can  the  poet  better  fulfil  his  vocation  than 
when  in  the  dim  voices  of  nature  he  finds  articu- 
late echoes  of  the  voice  of  God  ?  Tell  us  not  that 
when  we  find  in  the  Old  Testament  the  shadows 
of  the  New  we  are  wasting  our  time  and  allow- 
ing our  fancy  to  drag  us  whither  it  will.  That 
there  has  been  a  great  amount  of  fantastic  spir- 
itualizing of  the  Old  Testament,  from  Origen  even 
to  Jonathan  Edwards,  cannot,  we  think,  be  dis- 
puted. But  it  is  equally  true  that  there  has  been 
a  vast  amount  of  failure  in  poetry — failure  to 
bring  out  in  song  the  real  relations  of  God  and 
nature,  or  of  nature  and  man.  Man's  blunders 
in  reading  nature's  record  no  more  prove  the 
record  to  be  unworthy  of  study  than  the  blunders 
of  a  child  in  reading  "Paradise  Lost"  prove  that 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.  93 

Milton  was  not  a  poet.  It  is  beyond  reasonable 
doubt  that  the  Old  Testament  swarms  with  hints 
and  glimpses,  shadows  and  analogies,  *  that  are 
more  fully  brought  to  light  in  the  New.  It  is 
equally  beyond  doubt  that  on  this  account  it  is 
full  of  profound  and  genuine  interest  to  all  who 
are  concerned  about  the  attitude  of  God  to  sin- 
ners, and  the  revelation  of  his  grace;  and  it  is 
certain  that  this  feature  will  never  cease  to  give 
vitality  to  the  whole  book,  that  it  will  ever  tend 
to  confirm  and  multiply  the  proof  that  it  is  u  the 
Word  of  God  that  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever." 

III. 

After  considering  what  the  Bible  is,  it  is  a 
natural  question  to  ask  what  the  Bible  does. 
What  is  its  effect?  The  spiritual  experience  of 
some  men  as  to  what  they  find  in  the  Bible  is  not 
the  experience  of  all  men.  It  is  desirable  to  find 
a  more  palpable  test  of  the  claims  of  the  Book — 
something  to  prove  more  incontrovertibly  that  it 
is  the  Word  of  God,  and  thus  possesses  a  vitality 
that  can  never  be  destroyed. 

What,  then,  are  the  effects  of  the  Bible  ?  The 
question  is  not  capable  of  a  single  answer  because 
the  effects  of  the  Bible  depend  on  how  men  re- 
ceive it  and  apply  it.  Some  even  in  Christian 
countries  formally  deny  its  authority;  and  some, 


94  THE  VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

admitting  its  authority  in  words,  pay  little  or  no 
heed  to  it  in  their  lives.  In  judging  of  the  effects 
of  the  Bible,  we  must  lay  down  a  canon  applica- 
ble to  all  cases  of  a  professed  remedy  for  any  dis- 
order. If  the  question  be  whether  the  remedy  be 
an  efficient  one,  an  indispensable  condition  is  that 
it  be  applied  to  the  disorder  in  the  proper  way.  If 
vaccination  claims  to  be  an  antidote  to  smallpox, 
its  effects  can  be  judged  of  only  from  the  cases  of 
those  who  have  '  been  duly  and  properly  vacci- 
nated. If  the  practice  of  vaccination  were  merely 
general  but  not  universal  in  a  community,  it 
would  be  unfair  to  proclaim  it  a  failure  because 
many  cases  of  smallpox  occurred.  Applying  this 
canon  of  common  sense  to  the  case  of  the  Bible, 
it  is  plain  that  the  true  effects  of  the  Bible  can  be 
judged  of  only  from  the  cases  of  those  who  accept 
it  as  the  Word  of  God  and  strive  to  conform  in  all 
things  to  its  requirements.  If  these  constitute 
but  a  fraction  of  a  community;  if  the  greater  num- 
ber adopt  some  other  rule  of  life  in  whole  or  in 
part,  it  is  no  wonder  if  the  result,  as  apparent  in 
the  character  of  the  community,  is  unsatisfactory. 
In  such  a  community  the  question  is  not  fairly 
tested,  although  even  there  the  indirect  influence 
of  the  Bible  may  be  seen  in  a  higher  tone  and  a 
purer  life  than  could  have  been  found  where  the 
Bible  was  wholly  unknown. 


THE   VITALITY   OF   THE    BIBLE.  Q5 

Taking  those,  therefore,  by  whom  the  Bible 
has  been  cordially  accepted,  what  has  been  the 
result  ?  It  has  been  found  a  light  to  them  that  sit 
in  darkness  and  in  the  region  and  shadow  of  death, 
to  guide  their  feet  into  the  way  of  peace.  It  has 
brought  to  them  the  balm  of  Gilead  and  the  Phy- 
sician who  is  there.  It  has  taught  them  songs  of 
forgiveness  and  thanksgiving  through  the  grace 
of  Him  who  died  for  them  and  who  rose  again. 
It  has  given  them  a  home  and  a  Father,  a  charac- 
ter, a  life,  and  a  hope.  It  has  made  the  drunkard 
sober,  the  scoffer  devout,  the  miser  generous,  the 
timid  brave,  the  selfish  self-denying.  It  has  fur- 
nished the  young  with  noble  plans  of  life  and 
noble  principles  to  guide  them  through  it,  and  it 
has  given  them  strength  and  decision  to  stand  to 
their  colors.  It  has  furnished  the  afflicted  with 
comfort  in  every  sorrow,  kept  hope  burning  in  the 
deepest  gloom,  and  taught  them  to  hurl  defiance 
at  the  last  enemy — "O  death,  where  is  thy  sting? 
O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ?' ' 

It  has  nerved  men  and  women  too  with  won- 
derful strength  to  do  and  to  suffer.  It  has  made 
poor,  weak,  quivering  flesh  equal  to  the  tortures 
of  the  Inquisition,  equal  to  the  dreary  dungeon 
and  the  stake  and  the  gallows  and  the  wheel  and 
the  red-hot  pincers  and  the  flaying  knife,  and 
I 'know  not  what  other  instruments  of  cruelty. 


g6  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE    BIBLE. 

Grander  still,  it  has  inspired  them  with  a  mar- 
vellous love  for  their  fellows,  and  with  a  fervent 
sympathy  with  Jesus  in  his  grand  enterprise  to 
seek  and  to  save  the  lost.  It  has  turned  the  deli- 
cate lady  into  the  laborious  nurse  \vho  toils  day 
and  night  to  soothe  the  sorrows  and  heal  the  dis- 
eases of  the  sick  ;  it  has  sent  the  accomplished 
scholar  to  the  haunts  of  savages  to  try  to  win 
them  to  the  blessed  life,  no  matter  though  in  re- 
turn the  tomahawk  may  shatter  his  skull  or  the 
poisoned  arrow  pierce  his  bosom.  It  has  given 
power  to  the  Christian  explorer  to  bury  himself 
for  long  and  weary  years  among  degraded  tribes, 
and  while  dreaming  sadly  of  his  children  far  away, 
or  dreaming  of  luxurious  feasts  during  the  gnaw- 
ings  of  hunger,  to  work  on  resolutely  by  a  fixed 
plan  of  persevering  love  in  spite  of  pain  and  wea- 
riness and  peril  and  opposition  and  disappoint- 
ment and  harrowing  scenes  that  make  him  fancy 
he  is  living  in  hell.* 

But  not  to  dwell  on  extraordinary  cases,  the 
effect  of  the  Bible  on  individuals,  and  these 
numberless  as  the  sand,  is  that  through  it  they 
are  brought  into  fellowship  with  God — God  in 
Christ;  they  have  been  restored  to  their  lost  place 
in  the  great  divine  orbit,  and  have  recovered  that 
holy  communion  from  which  sin  had  driven  them. 

*  See  Livingstone's  Last  Journals,  II.  135. 


yX\3  R  A  ft  y 
THE   VITALITY   OF  THE    BIBLE.  97 


Words  cannot  express  what  it  is  to  have  gained 
a  God,  and  to  be  living  in  loving  fellowship  with 
him.  To  have  God  as  a  Father  and  a  Friend, 
forgiving  all  our  iniquities,  healing  all  our  dis- 
eases, guiding  our  perplexities,  soothing  our  sor- 
rows, and  sanctifying  our  mercies,  and  to  know 
that  these  are  but  the  firstfruits,  and  that  God 
will  be  the  strength  of  our  heart  and  our  portion 
for  evermore,  is  surely  the  most  heavenly  experi- 
ence that  man  can  have  in  this  world.  If  the 
Bible  in  all  ages  has  been  the  instrument  of  this 
experience,  it  may  well  be  called  "the  Word  of 
God  that  li veth  and  abideth  for  ever. ' ' 

But  beyond  the  effects  of  the  Bible  on  the 
individual,  let  us  glance  at  its  effects  on  society 
wherever  a  sufficient  number  of  persons  have 
yielded  themselves  to  it  to  give  a  tone  to  tlie 
whole  community.  It  can  hardly  be  denied  that 
it  has  proved  the  most  powerful  agent  of  civilisa- 
tion the  world  has  ever  known.  We  have  but  to 
look  at  what  takes  place  in  Fiji  or  Madagascar  or 
the  New  Hebrides  or  Lovedale  or  Livingstonia, 
when  the  Bible  becomes  a  living  power.  Who  is 
there  who,  if  told  that  some  community  of  can- 
nibals had  taken  to  the  Bible,  that  they  were  lis- 
tening in  crowds  to  its  message,  that  they  were 
fervently  singing  its  Psalms  and  hymns,  and  that 
their  children  had  learned  to  revere  the  name  of 

7 


98  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

Jesus,  would  not  expect  with  the  firmest  assu- 
rance to  hear  next  that  they  were  abandoning 
their  ferocious  habits,  building  houses,  cloth- 
ing themselves  with  decent  apparel,  cultivating 
their  fields,  beginning  to  trade,  enacting  righteous 
laws,  and  observing  the  rules  of  truth  and  right- 
eousness ?  And  as  the  ages  rolled  on,  should  we 
not  reckon  with  absolute  certainty  that  among 
these  nations,  as  in  older  countries,  the  Bible 
would  continue  to  exert  its  influence  and  to  ele- 
vate the  community  still  further  ? 

But  if  you  should  burn  the  Bible  and  abolish 
it  for  ever,  what  would  be  the  prospects  of  the 
world  as  to  order  and  real  progress  ?  What  skep- 
tic who  thinks  of  the  passions  that  lie  in  the  hu- 
man breast,  of  the  fearful  height  to  which  these 
passions  may  rise,  of  the  schemes  of  Nihilism  and 
Socialism,  of  the  societies  for  vengeance  and  as- 
sassination, of  daggers  and  revolvers,  nitro-glyce- 
rine  and  dynamite,  and  the  readiness  of  reckless 
men  for  their  nefarious  ends  to  plunge  society 
into  chaos,  could  look  forward  without  misgiving 
to  a  state  of  things  in  which  neither  Bible  nor 
Saviour,  law  nor  gospel,  should  have  the  slightest 
influence,  or  be  so  much  as  known?  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  hardly  a  Christian  man  or  woman 
whose  hope  for  the  world  in  future  ages  is  not 
bound  up  with  the  fate  of  the  Bible.  His  ground 


THE  VITALITY  OF   THE   BIBLE.  99 

would  be  the  same,  alike  for  despair  if  the  Bible 
should  perish,  and  for  hope  if  the  Bible  should  be 
sustained;  inasmuch  as  all  experience  shows  that 
its  influence  extends  alike  to  the  life  that  now  is 
and  to  that  which  is  to  come.  Even  on  this  lower 
ground,  as  an  instrument  of  temporal  benefit,  its 
vitality  never  fails ;  it  is  "  the  Word  of  God  that 
liveth  and  abideth  for  ever." 

IV. 

But  are  there  hot  difficulties  in  the  Bible? 
Are  there  not  passages  which  it  is  hard  to  recon- 
cile with  our  highest  ideas  of  the  character  of 
God?  Is  he  not  sometimes  introduced  as  requi- 
ring things  to  be  done  which  it  is  hard  to  believe 
that  he  could  have  done  ?  Are  not  men  and  wo- 
men sometimes  commended  for  acts  which  we 
cannot  read  of  without  a  shudder?  Is  there  noth- 
ing in  the  Bible  to  hurt  the  sense  of  modesty,  the 
instinct  of  purity  ?  If  it  be  the  Word  of  God  that 
liveth  and  abideth  for  ever,  why  should  it  contain 
a  single  statement  or  a  single  word  fitted  to  raise 
a  doubt  whether  it  has  really  come  from  him  ? 

Let  us  frankly  admit  that  there  are  difficulties 
in  the  Bible.  In  fact,  there  are  difficulties  in  con- 
nection with*  all  God's  works.  There  are  diffi- 
culties in  nature,  raising  doubts  in  some  minds 
whether  it  is  really  the  product  of  an  infinitely 


ICO  THE   VITALITY   OF  THE    BIBLE. 

benevolent  Creator.  We  have  storms,  volcanoes, 
earthquakes,  poisonous  winds,  destructive  floods, 
and  deadly  malaria.  We  have  famine  and  pesti- 
lence, we  have  animals  devouring  each  other,  we 
have  ferocious  monsters  of  the  deep  and  of  the 
land,  a  terror  to  all  who  are  near  them.  There 
are  great  difficulties  in  providence — in  the  moral 
government  of  God.  Why  did  God  permit  sin  to 
enter  his  world  and  spread  desolation  and  misery 
on  every  side?  Why  are  the  wicked  often  so 
prosperous?  why  is  the  just  man  so  often  trodden 
down  ?  why  is  the  godly  man  so  often  persecuted  ? 
Why  did  not  God  protect  his  fair  creation,  natu- 
ral and  moral,  from  being  invaded  and  desolated 
by  such  agencies  of  disorder  and  death  ?  l '  My 
ways  are  not  your  ways,  neither  are  your  thoughts 
my  thoughts,  saith  the  Lord. ' '  There  are  so  many 
ways  in  which  God  follows  a  different  course  from 
what  we  should  have  expected  that  we  cannot 
wonder  that  we  find  apparent  anomalies  in  his 
Word.  The  wonder  in  fact  would  be  if  there 
were  no  such  anomalies.  An  analogy  runs  through 
all  God's  works ;  and  that  analogy  would  have 
failed  us  if  we  had  met  with  difficulties  in  nature, 
difficulties,  yes,  tremendous  difficulties,  in  provi- 
dence, and  no  difficulties  whatever  in  the  Word. 

Let  us  remember,  too,  that  while  the  whole 
Bible  is  the  record  of  God's  revelation,  it  is  a  rev- 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE    BIBLE.  IOI 

elation  made  in  a  peculiar  way.  It  was  a  gradual 
revelation,  beginning  dimly,  and  shining  more 
and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.  It  was  an  edu- 
cating revelation,  for  the  natural  man  receiveth 
not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God;  and  the  fac- 
ulty of  spiritual  discernment  had  to  be  imparted  , 
and  enlarged,  had  to  be  made  gradually  capable  j 
of  more  and  more  clear  apprehension,  not  only  to  j 
individuals,  but  to  the  race  itself,  from  age  to  age. 
In  the  record  of  this  revelation,  moreover,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  unchangeable  divine  truth  which  is 
its  essence,  we  often  find  the  reflection  of  man's 
imperfect  apprehension  of  that  truth,  and  imper- 
fect moral  and  spiritual  application  of  it.  We 
find  the  unchangeable  truth  of  God  so  often  pre- 
sented in  immediate  connection  with  man's  im- 
perfect apprehension  of  it  that  what  really  be- 
longs to  man  may  at  times  appear  as  if  it  be- 
longed to  God. 

The  difficulty  in  respect  of  such  things  would 
be  much  greater  if  it  occurred  in  connection  with 
the  closing  portions  of  the  revelation.  But  the 
case  is  quite  different.  The  moral  difficulties  of 
revelation  are  connected  with  the  Old  Testament, 
and  chiefly  with  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, when  the  complications  to  which  we  have 
referred  were  in  full  force,  and  the  difficulty  of 
separating  what  is  purely  divine  from  man's  way 


IO2  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE 

of  apprehending  it  is  by  far  the  greatest.  With 
the  closing  portion  of  the  book  there  is  no  such 
difficulty.  A  spiritual  and  moral  level  has  been 
reached,  the  highest  ever  known  or  conceived  by 
man.  The  character  of  Jesus  Christ  presents  the 
most  complete  ideal  of  excellence  that  has  ever 
been  imagined.  The  moral  tone  of  the  Gospels 
and  the  Epistles  is  so  pure  as  to  constitute  one  of 
the  chief  arguments  for  the  divinity  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  In  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Bible  we 
seem  to  see  the  sun  struggling  through  clouds 
sometimes  so  dense  as  to  hide  him  from  our  view. 
In  the  Gospels  and  the  Epistles  the  clouds  have 
scattered,  the  sun  shines  forth  in  all  his  splendor 
and  in  all  his  strength,  and  the  earth,  bright, 
warm,  and  fruitful,  bears  witness  to  his  beneficent 
power. 

Another  consideration  is  of  great  practical 
weight  in  dealing  with  the  moral  difficulties  of 
the  Bible.  In  all  cases  where  difficulties  present 
themselves  on  one  side  of  a  question  it  is  useful 
to  ask  whether  on  the  other  side  the  difficulties 
are  not  equal,  perhaps  even  greater.  We  have 
allowed  that  there  are  difficulties  in  connection 
with  the  position  that  the  Bible  is  the  inspired 
Word  of  God.  But  we  affirm  with  the  utmost 
confidence  that  there  are  far  greater  difficulties 
in  connection  with  the  position  that  it  is  merely 


THE   VITALITY  OP  THE    BIBLE:  IC3 

the  product  of  man.  ' '  The  Bible, ' '  an  old  min- 
ister once  remarked  to  his  flock,  u  is  a  wonderful 
book,  if  it  be  true. ' '  The  surprise  of  his  people  at 
the  qualification  was  quickly  removed  when  he 
added,  "but  it  is  ten  times  more  wonderful  if  it 
be  not  true. ' '  To  those  who  ponder  the  Bible  in 
all  its  aspects — its  far-distant  commencement,  its 
unexampled  chain  of  authorship,  its  unity  of  pur- 
pose, ever  showing  God  drawing  near  to  man  in 
the  way  of  grace,  its  prophetic  announcements  of 
Christ,  its  glorious  portrait  of  the  great  Mediator, 
its  scheme  of  grace,  its  sanctifying  efficacy — it  is 
simply  inconceivable  that  such  a  book  should 
have  been  the  product  of  mere  human  reason. 
Whoever  ponders  the  main  contents  and  features 
of  the  book  and  drinks  in  its  great  message  feels 
that  there  is  such  a  surpassing  glory  about  it  that 
any  difficulties  there  may  be  in  some  parts  of  it 
do  not  affect  him — these  parts  are,  as  it  were, 
transfigured  through  their  neighborhood  to  the 
rest.  In  a  great  chandelier  of  a  thousand  lights 
a  few  dark  jets  are  nothing;  they  are  swallowed 
up  in  the  blaze.  If  .the  body  be  well  clad  on  a 
winter  day,  the  nake4vface  suffers  no  inconveni- 
ence; it  receives  its  heat  from  the  protected  body. 
We  know  that  here  we  see  through  a  glass,  dark- 
ly, and  are  ignorant  of  much  of  the  ways  of  God. 
All  that  the  loyal  heart  needs  is  such  evidence 


104  TH^   VITALITY   OF   THE    BIBLE. 

A  that  as  a  whole  the  Bible  is  the  Word  of  God  as 
1  to  lead  it  to  wait  with  patience  for  light  on  the 
(  difficulties  it  cannot  resolve.     There  is  such  pow- 
er, as  it  were,  in  the  leading  nerves  and  arteries 
that  local  numbness  here  and  there  makes  no  dif- 
ference to  the  vitality  of  the  whole  frame. 

V. 

But  does  the  whole  vitality  that  we  have  spo- 
ken of  reside  in  the  book  itself?  Is  there  a  sort 
of  charm  in  it,  so  that  it  cannot  but  influence 
men  for  good?  If  such  were  our  doctrine  \ve 
might  justly  be  called  bibliolaters — worshippers 
of  a  book.  If  one  were  to  extol  the  wires  along 
which  the  electric  fluid  runs  as  the  source  of  all 
they  convey,  one  would  be  laying  one's  self  open 
to  a  charge  of  ignorance  and  folly.  If,  in  like 
manner,  we  were  to  ascribe  to  the  Bible  as  a  book 
all  its  power  over  man's  spirit,  \ve  should  be  lay- 
ing ourselves  open  to  a  similar  charge.  No  doubt 
the  Bible,  even  as  a  book,  has  far  more  moral 
power  than  any  other  book.  There  is  a  measure 
of  moral  power  in  the  maxims  of  Seneca,  in  the 
precepts  of  Confucius,  and  in  the  requirements  of 
Buddha;  so  also  there  is  moral  power  in  the  very 
contents  of  the  Bible.  But  it  is  not  our  doctrine 
that  it  is  here  that  the  great  strength  of  the  Bible 
lies.  We  maintain,  further,  that  the  Bible  is  the 


THE   VITALITY  OF   THE    BIBLE.  IO5 

medium  through  which  the  Holy  Ghost  works  in 
the  soul  of  man,  enlightening,  renewing,  and 
transforming  it.  In  this  point  of  view  the  Bible 
is  like  the  electric  wire,  and  its  great  power  is 
derived  from  the  fact  that  it  is  the  channel  of  a 
divine  agent.  Being  the  product  of  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Bible  from  the  first 
has  been  adapted  to  his  use.  It  is  when  used  by 
him  that  it  becomes  "profitable  for  doctrine,  for 
reproof,  for  correction  and  instruction  in  right- 
eousness. "  It  is  called  ' '  the  sword  of  the  Spirit. ' ' 
As  his  weapon,  his  instrument,  it  does  its  greatest 
work.  If  we  would  know  the  Word  in  its  highest 
efficacy,  wre  must  depend  on  the  Spirit's  power. 
There  is  all  the  difference  between  the  Bible  in 
itself  and  the  Bible  as  the  instrument  of  the  Spirit 
that  there  was  between  the  strength  of  Samson 
with  his  locks  shorn  and  the  same  Samson  before 
the  scissors  or  razor  came  upon  his  head. 

Neglecting  this,  we  fall  into  fatal  errors,  and 
great  evils  result.  The  Word  quickened  by  the 
Spirit  is  God's  great  power  for  the  regeneration 
of  the  world.  Through  this  agency  the  greatest 
strongholds  fall,  as  did  the  walls  of  Jericho. 
Through  the  Word  read  and  preached  God  has 
provided  for  the  reclamation  of  the  darkest  moral 
wastes,  for  turning  the  wifderness  into  a  fruitful 
field,  and  for  giving  the  glory  of  Carmel  and  the 


106  THE  VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

excellency  of  Sharon  to  regions  cursed  with  spir- 
itual death  and  desolation.  Going  forth  with 
this  weapon  against  giants,  many  a  David  has 
achieved  victories  that  seemed  unreasonable  and 
impossible.  Cannibal  islands  have  come  to  re- 
sound with  the  melody  of  psalms  and  hymns  and 
spiritual  songs;  idols  have  been  cast  to  the  bats 
and  to  the  moles ;  before  this  Zerubbabel  great 
mountains  have  become  plains,  and  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem  have  been  built  up  even  in  troub- 
lous times. 

But  it  has  often  happened  that  men,  anxious 
to  do  good,  have  failed  to  see  how  the  Bible  can 
exert  more  than  its  natural  power  as  a  book  over 
the  hearts  and  lives  of  men.  Believing  this  to 
be  insufficient  for  the  great  moral  warfare  that 
has  to  be  waged,  they  have  looked  about  them 
for  more  likely  artillery — for  ways  of  influencing 
the  heart  more  apparently  adapted  to  the  end. 
One  very  common  device  has  been  to  make 
great  use  of  the  senses  in  conveying  spiritual 
truth.  Such  things  as  music,  architecture,  pic- 
tures, and  religious  rites  that  appeal  to  the  senses, 
have  been  thought  much  more  likely  to  attract 
the  thoughtless  and  impress  the  careless  than  the 
contents  of  a  serious  book.  But  still  it  remains 
true,  as  in  the  days  of  the  apostles,  that  men  are 
born  again  through  the  Word  of  God  that  liveth 


THE  VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.  IO/ 

for  ever,  that  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation,  and  that  it  has 
pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to 
save  them  that  believe.  Want  of  confidence  in 
the  divine  method  of  4 '  Word  and  Spirit ' '  leads 
to  devices  that  promise  much  but  perform  little. 
The  more  trust  we  repose  in  the  Word  as  the 
channel  and  the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  power,  the 
more  glorious  are  the  results  sure  to  follow. 
This  holds  true  alike  of  our  private  reading  of 
the  Bible  and  of  the  use  that  is  made  of  it  in 
public.  A  Biblical  Christian  is  the  best  fur- 
nished of  all  Christians,  and  a  Biblical  pulpit  is 
the  most  powerful  of  all  pulpits.  But  in  either 
case  the  power  of  the  Spirit  is  the  energizing 
force  that  makes  the  Word  effectual ;  and  the 
words  of  the  apostle  are  as  applicable  to  this  as 
to  any  other  form  of  spiritual  labor — "I  have 
planted,  Apollos  watered ;  but  God  gave  the  in- 


VI. 

We  have  confined  ourselves  in  this  tract  to 
the  chief  elements  of  the  vitality  of  the  Bible. 
We  have  dwelt  on  its  chief  element  of  unity — 
its  view  from  first  to  last  of  God  drawing  near 
to  men  in  the  way  of  grace,  encouraging  them 
to  hope  in  his  mercy  through  a  Mediator.  We 


IO8  THE   VITALITY  OF  THE    BIBLE. 

have  seen  him  carrying  forward  his  scheme  from 
age  to  age,  till  at  last,  in  the  end  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, the  gulf,  which  opened  between  them  at 
the  beginning  of  Genesis,  is  completely  bridged 
over,  and  a  voice  is  heard  proclaiming,  "  Be- 
hold, the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  he 
will  dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  his  peo- 
ple, and  God  himself  shall  be  with  them  and 
shall  be  their  God." 

It  is  hardly  possible,  in  a  closing  sentence, 
even  to  glance  at  other  elements  of  unity  or  other 
features  of  vitality  in  the  Scriptures.  We  may 
simply  notice  how,  all  through,  the  two  great 
elements  of  practical  goodness — duty  to  God  and 
duty  to  man — go  hand  and  hand  together ;  how 
the  service  of  God  constantly  includes  all  moral 
duty,  all  faithfulness  in  the  social  relations  of 
men,  so  that  you  never  find  religion  viewed  as  a 
separate  concern  that  may  be  duly  attended  to, 
even -when  other  duties  are  neglected;  how  uni- 
form is  the  view  presented  in  Scripture  of  the 
awrfulness  of  sin,  its  deadly  virus,  and  its  awful 
doom  when  the  day  of  retribution  comes  at  last; 
how  constant  is  the  encouragement  to  man  to 
seek  communion  with  God ;  what  a  lofty  place 
prayer  holds  alike  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New ;  and  how  beautiful  the  Bible  pictures  are 
of  the  intercourse  of  redeemed  man  with  God, 


THE   VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBI^E.  ICX) 

whether  seen  in  the  converse  of  Moses  on  the 
Mount,  or  David  in  his  Psalms,  or  the  beloved 
disciple  leaning  on  his  Master's  bosom! 

Let  us  mention  but  one  other  feature  —  the 
hopeful  spirit  that  pervades  the  whole  Bible.  The 
Old  Testament  was  full  of  hope  in  the  prospect 
of  the  first  coming  of  Christ ;  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  full  of  hope  in  the  prospect  of  the  sec- 
ond. Admitting,  while  the  Bible  does,  that 
earth  is  laboring  under  a  frightful  disorder,  it 
looks  forward  with  serene  confidence  to  a  time 
when  all  tokens  of  the  disorder  shall  be  removed. 
Not  certainly  wholly  remedied,  in  the  sense  of 
all  men  being  saved,  for  there  is  neither  conceal- 
ment nor  ambiguity  as  to  the  fact  that  a  portion 
of  mankind  will  be  lost.  This  is  the  solemn  and 
mysterious  truth  which  is  never  allowed  in  the 
Bible  to  pass  from  our  view.  But  in  other  re- 
spects, the  winding  up  of  the  world's  history,  or, 
rather,  of  the  church's  history,  exemplifies  the 
tendency  of  Scripture  to  carry  on  our  minds  to 
bright  conclusions.  We  are  encouraged  to  think 
much  of  God's  power  of  bringing  good  out  of 
evil.  Our  individual  troubles  have  their  sol- 
ace ;  and  on  a  large  scale  all  things  work  to- 
gether for  our  good.  The  power  of  the  Bible  to 
cheer  the  afflicted  is  one  of  its  chiefest  glories. 
It  is  the  Bible  only  that  can  assure  us  that  "our 


IIO  THE  VITALITY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  work- 
eth  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding,  even  an  eternal, 
weight  of  glory;  while  we  look  not  at  the  things 
which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which  are  not 
seen ;  for  the  things  which  are  seen  are  tempo- 
ral, but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are  eter- 
nal." 


PRESENT  STATE 


OF  THE 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT 

FROM 

;  PROPHECY. 

BY 

REY.  PRINCIPAL  CAIRNS,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


ARGUMENT  OF  THE  TRACT. 


THE  conditions  which  must  meet  in  any  utterance  or  wri- 
ting to  warrant  its  being  regarded  as  a  prophecy  are  stated. 
While  other  great  ends  are  served  by  prophetic  teaching,  the 
predictive  element  is  shown  to  be  the  chief  one  apologetic- 
ally. 

The  Messianic  element  in  the  Old  Testament  is  traced 
from  its  earliest  appearance  down  to  the  latest  book ;  and  it 
is  shown  that  the  Christian  is  justified  in  regarding  the  first 
promise  as  the  prediction  of  a  personal  Saviour ;  that  the 
promises  to  Abraham,  the  blessing  of  Judah  by  Jacob,  the 
words  of  Balaam,  the  promise  to  Moses  of  the  rise  of  a 
prophet  like  unto  himself,  can  only  be  adequately  interpreted 
by  regarding  them  as  referring  to  a  personal  Messiah.  The 
rise  of  the  Davidic  kingdom,  the  relation  of  David's  career 
and  experiences  to  a  great  King  and  Sufferer  who  was  to  de- 
scend from  him,  the  Messianic  references  in  the  Psalms,  and 
the  frequent  references  to  the  Davidic  descent  of  the  Messiah 
in  the  various  prophets  down  to  Malachi  are  traced.  The 
Davidic  element  in  the  prophecies  is  shown  to  be  strength- 
ened by  the  birth  of  Jesus  at  Bethlehem.  The  cycle  of  pre- 
dictions bearing  on  Christ's  life  and  ministry  and  the  won- 
derful ones  relating  to  his  death  are  noticed.  The  conflicting 
views  of  unbelieving  critics  and  the  concessions  of  Strauss 
on  important  points  are»exposed.  The  widespread  expecta- 
tion of  the  rise  of  a  great  kingdom  in  the  East  produced  by 
the  prophecies  closes  the  first  branch  of  the  argument. 

The  prophecies  relating  to  the  Christian  church  are  then 
examined.  The  relation  of  Judaism  to  Christianity  and  the 
superiority  of  the  latter  are  shown.  The  predicted  spread 
and  universal  prevalence  of  Christianity  when  there  was  no 
likelihood  of  fulfilment,  and  the  ideal  of  a  universal  religion 
in  the  prophecies,  are  inexplicable  on  any  natural  theory. 
Objections  are  anticipated  and  refuted  by  the  prediction  of 
failure,  delay,  reaction,  and  corruption. 

The .  predictions  of  the  captivities  and  dispersions  of  the 
Jews,  the  New  Testament  prophecies  of  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  and  the  predictions  concerning  the  Arabs,  Egypt, 
Nineveh,  Babylon,  and  Tyre,  are  examined,  and  the  conclu- 
sions are  drawn  that  they  have  not  the  characteristics  of  con- 
fessedly human  predictions,  that  ordinary  explanations  are 
inadequate,  and  that  the  Christian  view  accounts  for  all  the 
facts. 


PRESENT  STATE 


OF  THE 


CHEISTIAN  AEGDMENT  FROM  PBOPHECY. 


IT  has  been  commonly  and  justly  held  that 
three  conditions  must  meet  in  an  utterance  or 
writing  to  warrant  its  being  regarded  as  a  proph- 
ecy or  used  as  the  seal  of  a  revelation.  First, 
it  must  lie  beyond  human  sagacity  or  conjecture.  A 
prophecy  requires  to  be  as  truly  supernatural  as  a 
miracle  of  power.  If  the  death  of  Christ  could 
by  any  natural  means  have  been  foretold  in  the 
days  of  David  or  Isaiah,  the  notice  would  cease  to 
be  a  prediction,  being  reduced  to  such  an  antici- 
pation of  the  rejection  of  the  Just  One  as  occurs 
in  the  * '  Republic ' '  of  Plato;  and  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple, the  Bible  threat  of  the  downfall  of  Jerusalem 
would  only  rank  with  Macaulay's  picture  of  the 
New  Zealander  amid  the  ruins  of  London. 

Secondly,  the  prophecy  must  precede  the  fulfil- 
ment. It  must  not  be  history  disguised  as  proph- 
ecy; and  hence  the  Christian  writer  must  meet 

the  frequent  allegations  that  the  dates  of  Scrip- 

8 


114  PRESENT  STATE   OF  THE 

ture  books  are  placed  too  early,  or  that  passages 
now  look  prophetic  because  they  have  received 
sharpening  touches  after  the  event. 

The  third  condition  of  prophecy  is,  that  a 
real  fulfilment  has  taken  place.  The  rationalist 
will  grant  in  the  Bible  many  bright  anticipations 
of  a  golden  age  which  according  to  him  have 
missed  the  mark.  We  must  be  prepared,  there- 
fore, to  show  in  history  definite  and  specific  fulfil- 
ments. It  is  not  necessary  that  the  full  accom- 
plishment gf  a  prophecy  should  be  exhibited;  for 
surely  God  may  accomplish  a  great  scheme,  or 
even  a  part  of  it,  gradually. 

It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to  treat  prophecy  as 
a  purely  evidential  arrangement,  or  to  lose  sight 
of  other  great  ends  and  uses  served  by  propheti- 
cal teaching.  There  were  all  along,  in  the  Jew- 
ish and  Christian  church,  men  who,  under  the 
name  of  u prophets,"  or  some  kindred  one,  were 
the  great  teachers  of  the  people,  not  only  in  re- 
gard to  the  future  but  in  regard  to  the  present, 
expounding  and  enforcing  all  spiritual  truth  and 
moral  duty,  and  shining  out  with  peculiar  splen- 
dor as  national  guides  in  every  field  of  religious 
thought  and  action.  They  were  necessary  to  the 
system  called  the  theocracy  in  all  its  parts;  and 
it  was  in  virtue  of  this  general  mission  that  they 
carried  out  in  God's  name  plans  and  measures 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  115 

where  the  knowledge  of  the  future  was  the  very 
condition  of  the  enterprise  and  of  its  success.  As 
it  was  theirs  to  work  this  peculiar  element  into 
the  frame  of  the  divine  government  of  Israel  and 
of  the  scheme  of  redemption,  they  could  not  but 
derive  from  it  special  authority.  Prophecy,  con- 
sidered as  prediction,  both  lent  to  and  borrowed 
from  the  mighty  moral  scheme  into  which  it  was 
introduced.  It  prepared  the  way  and  shaped  the 
work  of  all  divine  heralds,  including  the  last  and 
greatest,  as  well  as  attested  their  claims.  It  rilled 
men  with  the  knowledge  of  coming  events,  and 
thus  with  interest  and  hope  in  regard  to  them; 
and  thus  it  not  only  made  development  possible, 
but  when  this  seemed  to  be  defeated  or  delayed, 
it  brightened  the  sky  and  revealed  again  its  day- 
star  in  men's  hearts.  This  broad  and  comprehen- 
sive view  of  prophecy,  as  embracing  moral  and 
religious  leadership,  with  needful  infallibility  on 
other  points  and,  so  to  speak,  constitutional  rec- 
ognition as  thus  endowed,  must  not  be  surrendered ; 
but  it  is  evident  that  as  an  argument  for  the  gos- 
pel we  must  mainly  draw  from  its  superhuman 
intimations  of  the  future,  and  fix  attention  on  the 
prophet  as  the  organ  of  the  omniscience  of  Him 
who  "declares  the  end  from  the  beginning." 

The   predictive    element    in   the   religion   of 
ancient  Israel,  which  reappears  in  Christianity, 


Il6  PRESENT  STATE  OE  THE 

though  but  another  form  of  the  supernatural, 
will  be  found  to  have  a  singular  interest  and 
value  as  completing  and  fortifying  what  is  com- 
monly called  miracle.  One  great  objection  to 
miracle  urged  by  Hume  and  others  entirely  dis- 
•  appears.  There  is  no  longer  here  a  dependence 
on  testimony  for  events  entirely  past.  If  not  the 
oracles,  the  fulfilments  in  multitudes  of  cases 
belong  to  our  own  time.  Ordinary  history  makes 
good  the  announcement,  which  is  not  by  itself  a 
miracle;  and  ordinary  history  or  observation 
makes  good  the  accomplishment,  which  must 
equally  be  a  matter  of  fact;  and  all  can  judge 
whether  the  miracle  is  begotten  between  them. 
Besides,  prophecy  forms  a  chain  even  more  than 
other  miracle.  Every  part  supports  every  other, 
binding  also  the  doctrine  together,  as  for  exam- 
ple in  type  and  antitype,  by  its  cohesion;  and 
every  fresh  confirmation,  even  in  the  smallest 
point,  supports  the  whole. 

In  this  tract  I  shall  consider  prophecy  as  it 
bears  first,  on  the  Messiah ;  secondly,  on  the  Chris- 
tian church;  thirdly,  on  the  Jewish  people;  and 
fourthly,  on  the  other  nations  of  the  world. 

I.    MESSIANIC   PROPHECY. 

With  reference  to  the  Messiah,  we  must  main- 
ly draw  here  from  the  Old  Testament.  It  is 


CHRISTIAN    ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  117 

indeed  striking  that  the  predictive  element  in 
regard  to  Him  also  reappears  in  the  New,  not 
only  in  the  utterances  of  others  regarding  His 
future,  but  in  His  own.  Still  it  is  to  the  earlier 
utterances,  as  farthest  separated  from  the  event 
and  woven  most  into  a  scheme,  that  attention 
has  been  most  directed.  It  cannot  be  denied  by 
any  candid  mind  that  these  do  not  admit  of  any 
explanation  in  harmony  with  mere  ordinary 
laws. 

In  the  earliest  parts  of  tjie  old  Testament  this 
mysterious  element  already  appears.  Jews  and 
Christians  have  alike  found  such  references  in 
the  writings  generally  ascribed  to  Moses.  Nor 
do  they  disappear  if  the  Mosaic  authorship  of 
the  Pentateuch  be  broken  up,  or  its  date,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  carried  as  far  down  as  any  of  the  theo- 
ries which  have  been  started  on  the  subject  may 
demand.  The  most  advanced- theory  still  places 
the  utterances  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.  The  development  of  prophecy  may 
not  in  the  more  novel  scheme  be  so  visible; 
but  prophecy,  or  what  looks  like  it,  remains. 

This  applies  to  what  has  been  called  the  first 
Gospel,  in  Gen.  3:15.  It  is  possible  so  to  allego- 
rize the  temptation  and  fall  as  to  bring  out  of 
this  verse  nothing  more  than  that  the  human 
race,  apparently  for  ever  defeated,  should  still  for 


Il8  PRESENT   STATE   OK   THE 

ever  overcome,  even  by  that  very  defeat  and 
suffering.  It  is  possible  to  see  in  the  words 
only  the  announcement  of  a  destructive  conflict 
between  men  and  serpents.  But  the  ordinary 
Christian  does  not  put  any  violence  upon  this 
language  when  he  regards  it  as  foretelling  a 
great  and  decisive  deliverance  for  the  race  of 
man  from  the  dark  and  evil  power  that  had  pre- 
vailed over  it;  nay,  its  terms  support  him  when 
he  goes  farther,  and  believes  it  to  refer  to  a 
single  Deliverer,  who  should  be  in  a  peculiar 
sense  the  seed  of  the  woman,  and  who  should 
only  crush  his  great  antagonist  by  being  himself 
bruised. 

Everything  in  the  context  supports  this  deep 
interpretation  of  the  oracle.  We  have  on  the 
one  hand  the  exclusion  of  the  race  from  the  tree 
of  life,  and  on  the  other,  the  name,  expressive  of 
returning  hope,  given  to  the  woman,  Havah — 
the  living.  We  have  the  origin  of  sacrifice,  and 
the  fulfilment  of  a  strife  between  the  seed  of  the 
woman  and  of  the  serpent,  in  the  Cainite  and 
Sethite  races  begun,  with  the  nursing  of  hope  in 
the  latter  through  the  translation  of  Enoch  and 
the  birth  of  Noah.  The  deluge  follows,  confirmed 
so  much  by  the  Chaldsean  discoveries,  but  still 
more  by  the  moral  grandeur  of  the  Bible  record, 
with  its  entire  exclusion  of  idolatry,  its  clear 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  119 

doctrine  of  judgment  tempered  by  mercy,  and  its 
ratification  of  the  earlier  covenant  by  a  fresh 
symbol  prophesying  the  continuance  of  the  race. 
There  is  also,  in  connection  with  the  children  of 
Noah,  taken  with  the  following  chapter,  the 
great  ethnological  forecast  of  the  history  of  the 
world,  so  unlike  everything  in  the  earliest  litera- 
ture; for  as  Jehovah  is  the  "God  of  Shem,"  the 
leading  place  of  the  Shemite  stock  in  religion  is 
indicated,  with  the  comparative  degradation  of 
the  Hamite  and  the  passing  over  of  the  knowl- 
edge of.  God  to  the  Japhetic,  in  a  way  which  the 
whole  relations  of  Asia  to  Europe  and  reactions 
of  Europe  on  Asia  more  and  more  confirm.  A 
writer  so  little  given  to  prophetic  fancies  as  the 
late  Baron  Bunsen  has  been  struck  with  this,  and 
in  his  u  Bibelwerk  "  has  seen  in  this  dwelling  of 
Japhet  in  the  tents  of  Shem  what  "in  the  highest 
sense  is  fulfilled  in  Christianity."* 

The  next  step  in  prophetic  literature  brings 
us  into  contact  with  the  name  of  Abraham.  His 
call,  as  it  is  known  in  Jewish  and  Christian  the- 
ology, designed  in  connection  with  his  migration 
to  save  the  world  from  growing  idolatry,  has  had 
light  recently  cast  upon  it,  showing  that  uUr"  of 
the  Chaldees  was  in  the  midst  of  moon  and  sun 
worship;  and  even  his  residence  in  Canaan,  and 
*  "  Bibelwerk,"  I.  p.  23. 


120  PRESENT   STATE   OF   THE 

war  with  the  kings  of  the  East,  has  been  con- 
firmed by  the  evidence  of  an  Elamite  dynasty  of 
that  age  reaching  westward  to  the  Mediterranean. 
The  first  utterance  of  an  apparently  prophetic 
character  made  to  Abraham  is  in  Gen.  12:2,  3: 

( '  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  nation,  and  I 
will  bless  thee  and  make  thy  name  great :  and 
thou  shalt  be  a  blessing;  and  I  will  bless  them 
that  bless  thee,  and  curse  him  that  curseth  thee, 
and  in  thee  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed." 

With  regard  to  this  we  would  notice  that — 
First,  the  greatest  stress  is  laid  on  it.  It 
stands  at  the  head  of  a  visibly  new  development 
in  the  history.  It  is  in  one  way  or  other  re- 
peated more  frequently  than  anything  else  in 
the  book  of  Genesis.  The  temporal  part  of  the 
promise,  that  Abraham  should  have  a  son,  or  that 
he  should  be  the  father  of  nations,  or  many  na- 
tions, or  that  kings  should  be  his  offspring,  is 
reiterated  too  often  to  be  here  stated;  while  the 
spiritual  side  of  the  promise,  as  to  all  nations 
being  blessed  in  him,  is  repeated  twice  again  in 
his  own  lifetime,  once  (Gen.  18:18)  when  inter- 
ceding for  Sodom,  and  again  (Gen.  22:18)  after 
offering  up  his  son.  This  last  time  it  is  with  the 
variation  that  the  families  are  to  be  blessed  in  his 
seed.  In  like  manner  the  promise  is  renewed  to 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT   FROM   PROPHECY.  121 

Isaac  (Gen.  26:4)  and  to  Jacob  (Gen.  28:14).  On 
this  last  occasion  the  blessing  of  all  the  nations 
has  the  formulas  united  with  it,  u  in  thee  and  in 
thy  seed."  This  universality  of  blessing  is  car- 
ried over  into  the  seventy-second  Psalm,  ver.  17. 
It  cannot  be  doubted  that  we  have  here  a  turn- 
ing-point, which  is  held  to  affect  henceforth  all 
Jewish  and  all  human  history. 

Secondly,  the  sense  of  the  words  cannot  be 
less  than  Messianic.  I  do  not  argue  this  chiefly 
from  the  creation  of  a  separate  people  and  the 
securing  of  a  separate  territory  through  which 
the  work  of  redemption  was  to  be  accomplished. 
The  context  of  Scripture  would  draw  this  passage 
thus  indirectly  to  a  Messianic  significance.  But 
this  is  only  the  smallest  part  of  the  oracle.  How 
are  the  nations  to  be  blessed  in  Abraham  but  in  a 
spiritual  manner  ?  It  is  explained  in  connection 
writh  circumcision  that  the  covenant  with  Abra- 
ham meant  that  God  was  his  God.  Was  not  this 
blessing  then  to  be  extended,  so  that  the  very 
blessing  of  Abraham  should  become  that  of  the 
nations?  It  has  been  held  by  some  that  the 
grammatical  form  of  the  original  only  means  that 
Abraham  was  to  be  so  prosperous  that  the  nations 
should  wish  for  themselves  the  same  prosperity. 
This  may  be  here  and  there  a  Hebrew  idiom;  but 
unfortunately  for  this  scheme  it  is  said  that  Abra- 


122  PRESENT   STATE  OF  THE 

ham  was  to  ube  a  blessing,"  and  unless  we  arbi- 
trarily limit  the  sense  the  nations  must  have 
wished  this  overflow  of  his  deepest  prosperity  into 
their  souls.  The  Messiah,  therefore,  as  a  Teacher 
and  Saviour  was  necessary  for  this.  And  though 
we  cannot  say  that  the  personality  of  the  Messiah 
is  here  made  prominent  or  sole,  so  far  as  the 
words  go,  yet  it  must  be  taken  into  account,  in 
the  very  nature  of  things,  so  that  without  an  Ab- 
rahamic  seed  the  saying  could  not  have  been  ful- 
filled. 

This  then  leads  to  a  third  remark:  that  the 
words  are  not  only  a  Messianic  truth,  but  a  real 
Messianic  prophecy.  It  would  not  be  very  easy 
even  on  their  temporal  side  to  deny  to  these  utter- 
ances a  predictive  character;  but  it  might  be  ob- 
jected that  the  bringing  into  Canaan  of  a  new 
race  from  Mesopotamia  with  a  new  fpunder, 
though  it  involved  great  changes  and  race  devel- 
opments, might  have  been  risked  as  a  guess,  or 
written  after  the  event.  But  from  what  construc- 
tion of  history,  or  from  what  data  in  time,  could 
the  anticipation  of  a  world-wide  spiritual  blessing 
in  connection  with  one  man  have  arisen?  No 
mythic  greatness  of  Abraham,  no  actual  influence 
of  his  supposed  Jewish  seed  upon  the  world,  could 
have  originated  the  story.  If  you  take  it  either 
in  its  germinal  character,  or  as  expanded  in  the 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  123 

seventy-second  Psalm,  the  world  never  saw  and 
never  could  have  conceived  a  universal  religion 
of  righteousness  and  peace.  This  defies  all  post- 
dating of  the  Pentateuch  and  Psalms;  for  you  are 
little  nearer  the  phenomenon  at  the  end  than  at 
the  beginning.  Is  it  then  a  dream,  a  mere  de- 
vout prophetic  craze  ?  Those  are  not  entitled  to 
say  so  who  think  that  the  whole  world  has  re- 
ceived some  permanent  blessing  through  Abra- 
ham's seed,  least  of  all  those  who  with  Kuenen 
trace  back  to  them  a  pure  monotheism.  Much 
less  those  who  see  the  one  God  not  only  exalted, 
but  reconciled  and  made  nigh  by  the  incarnation 
of  his  own  Son  as  Abraham's  great  descendant, 
and  his  gospel  moving  on  to  bless  all  nations, 
and  who  recognize  the  blessing  of  Abraham  as 
coming  on  the  Gentiles  by  Jesus  Christ,  that  we 
might  receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  by  faith 
(Gal.  3:14). 

Every  condition  of  prophecy  here  meets:  an 
anterior  oracle,  a  glimpse  beyond  mortal  ken  into 
the  history  of  religion,  and  an  actual  connection 
of  Abraham's  name  with  an  influence  more  and 
more  filling  the  world.  Why  is  it  that  nothing 
equal  can  be  said  of  any  of  the  shadowy  kings 
dug  up  in  the  homes  of  Abraham's  childhood  ? 

An  interesting  step  is  taken  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  plan,  as  Christians  believe,  in  the 


124  PRESENT   STATE   OP  THE 

blessing  of  his  sons  by  the  dying  Jacob.  The 
unanimous  tradition  of  Judaism  also,  as  attested 
in  its  earliest  translations,  targums,  and  commen- 
taries has  found  in  the  blessing  of  Judah  (Gen. 
49:10)  an  anticipation  of  the  Messiah.  In  rea- 
soning, however,  with  those  who  have  forsaken 
alike  the  church  and  the  synagogue,  I  cannot  lay 
quite  the  same  stress  on  this  otherwise  remarka- 
ble verse  as  on  the  utterances  regarding  Abraham. 
It  is,  indeed,  as  helped  by  the  Abrahamic  oracles, 
and  still  more  than  in  their  case  by  the  announce- 
ments of  later  ages,  that  its  value  to  the  argu- 
ment is  realized.  But  value  it  still  has,  as  the 
force  of  many  prophecies  does  not  lie  so  much  in 
their  uniform  resistless  application  to  Christ  as 
in  their  manifold  and  often  varying,  yet  still  ap- 
preciable, applicability.  With  this  qualification 
the  words  deserve  to  be  pondered : 

"The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah, 
nor  a  lawgiver  from  between  his  feet,  until  Shi- 
loh  come,  and  unto  Him  shall  the  gathering 
[homage]  of  the  people  [peoples]  be." 

It  needs  no  force  to  put  on  this  language  a 
Messianic  sense.  Though  the  tribe  of  Judah  is 
described  in  its  lion-like  strength  and  in  other 
features  of  temporal  prosperity,  yet  the  oracle 
professes  to  refer  to  "  the  last  days;"  and  the  pa- 
triarch interrupts  the  whole  series  of  disclosures 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  125 

with  the  words  of  lofty  spiritual  import,  "I  have 
waited  for  thy  salvation,  O  Lord!"  The  words 
anyhow  suit  a  voluntary  rule  far  more  than  a  con- 
quest; and  this  is  indisputable  and  a  striking  ad- 
ditional Messianic  feature,  if  according  to  Gesen- 
ius,  who  did  not  always  adhere  to  the  view,  the 
majority  of  Hebraists  have  rightly  understood  by 
"  Shiloh"  a  personal  name,  and  one  of  the  same 
import  with  Isaiah  9:6,  "The  Prince  of  peace. " 
It  is  not  easy  to  think  that  these  words  were  an 
after-thought,  designed  to  fill  up  a  gap  in  the 
genealogy  of  the  Jewish  Messiah,  which  had 
now  been  traced  through  Eve  and  Noah,  down 
to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob;  and  yet  are  we  to 
ascribe  it  to  accident  that  they  coincide  with  the 
tribe  of  our  Lord's  birth  and  prepare  for  all  that 
is  said  of  him  as  the  Son  of  David?  Nor  is  it 
without  weight  that  beyond  the  commanding 
place  of  Judah,  which  outshone  everything  in  Is- 
rael, and  at  length  eclipsed  its  name,  the  advent 
of  the  greater  and  wider  Ruler  should  have  oc- 
£urred  at  the  critical  period  when  the  sceptre  was 
departing  and  had  not  quite  departed.  Although 
this  oracle  may  not  have  the  absolutely  incon- 
testable force  (to  unbelievers)  of  the  blessing  of 
Abraham,  it  contains  so  much  both  of  prophet- 
like  matter  and  fulfilment  that  it  cannot  well  be 
disregarded. 


126  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 

The  same  remark  applies  to  the  first  grand 
echo  of  this  regal  utterance — the  prophecy  of  Ba- 
laam in  Numbers  24:17  as  to  the  Star  that 
should  come  out  of  Jacob  and  the  Sceptre  that 
should  rise  out  of  Israel.  Some  may  regard  all 
this  as  balanced  by  what  they  may  think  the 
legend  of  the  ass  that  spake,  but  not  those  who 
consider  how  masterly  as  a  moral  study  the  por- 
trait of  Balaam  is,  and  how  marvellous  as  lyrics 
are  his  oracles.  For  the  view  of  this  passage 
which  makes  it  contain  a  prophecy,  and  that  of 
one  far  beyond  any  ordinary  king  like  David,  who 
subdued  Moab  and  Edom,  there  is  to  be  consid- 
ered first  the  whole  current  of  Jewish  interpreta- 
tion. This  was  so  decisive  that  when  the  last 
great  effort  of  the  Jews  to  shake  off  the  Roman 
yoke  was  made  under  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  the 
false  Messiah  who  led  them,  supported  by  all  the 
influence  of  one  of  their  greatest  Rabbis,  Akiba, 
assumed  this  emblem,  and  was  known  as  the  son 
of  a  star  (Bar-Cochebd).  As  applied  to  Christ,  it 
denotes  a  Messiah  of  a  very  different  order;  and 
there  is  a  peculiar  grandeur  in  making  the  proph- 
et, who  had  been  hired  to  curse,  pronounce  a 
blessing  on  the  people  of  God  under  this  last  and 
greatest  of  their  leaders,  and  celebrate  his  endu- 
ring sway  when  not  only  present  enemies,  like 
Moab,  Edom,  and  Amalek,  but  others  far  in  the 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  I2/ 

future,  like  Assyria  and  Rome,  passed  away.  It 
has  been  justly  said  that  the  reference  to  the 
"ships  from  the  coast  of  Chittim "  (Cyprus), 
which  can  only  refer  to  the  eastward  movements 
of  the  Roman  power,  excludes  every  supposition 
which  could  make  this  a  late  interpolation  in  the 
Pentateuch,  and  constrains  an  application  to  the 
Messianic  King,  to  whom  the  Old  Testament 
horizon  ever  stretches.  This  lesson  is  independ- 
ent of  the  star  of  the  wise  men  in  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew.  To  those  who  believe  in  miracles  it 
will  be  a  special  confirmation  that  this  particular 
feature  in  our  Lord's  history  is  thus  pre-indicated 
which  brings  on  the  scene  men  from  the  east  so 
very  different  from  the  seer  who  first  caught  sight 
of  the  emblem.  But  the  fulfilment  would  have 
been  true  in  a  great  and  irresistible  Saviour-King, 
defeating  and  outlasting  all  the  powers  of  the 
world,  even  had  no  literal  star  heralded  His  birth; 
and  thus  attested  by  friend  and  foe — by  the  found- 
er of  Israel's  line  and  the  diviner  called  in  to  ex- 
tirpate it — that  royal  image  starts  up  in  the  Bible 
which  never  afterwards  forsakes  it. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  however,  that  the  Pen- 
tateuch does  not  end  until  another  figure  or  shad- 
ow of  this  coming  Leader  is  disclosed,  viz.,  that 
of  a  Prophet.  This  takes  place  in  the  eighteenth 
chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  where  Moses  from  the 


128  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 

fifteenth  verse  to  the  end  speaks  of  the  Prophet 
that  should  be  raised  up  like  unto  himself.  Two 
views  have  generally  divided  interpreters  here. 
The  one  of  these  regards  the  text  as  making  pro- 
vision for  the  continuance  of  a  prophetic  body  in 
Israel,  so  that  the  chosen  nation  might  not  be  left 
to  envy  the  heathen,  nor  on  the  other  hand  be 
visited  with  such  immediate  and  terrible  revela- 
tions as  had  almost  overwhelmed  them  at  Sinai. 
This  continuous  prophecy,  real  but  mediate  and 
human,  like  that  of  Moses,  is  regarded  by  these 
interpreters  as  the  thing  promised,  while  the  Mes- 
siah is  held  to  come  in  as  the  culmination  of  the 
whole.  Now,  even  this  view  is  a  wonderful  reach 
into  the  future,  as  there  was  no  time  for  a  proph- 
ecy after  the  event,  and  how  could  Moses,  or  any 
one  personating  him,  know  that  he  stood  at  the 
head  of  a  continuous  body,  and  that  revelation, 
such  as  he  knew  it  in  himself,  was  to  be  prolonged 
to  an  indefinite  future?  But  it  is  impossible  to 
limit  the  words  of  Moses  to  this  collective  sense; 
and  both  what  he  knew  of  himself  and  what  the 
Old  Testament  literature  unanimously  accords  to 
him — a  place  altogether  preeminent,  must  have 
led  to  a  proportionately  exalted  idea  of  the  coming 
Prophet.  This  does  not  exclude  successors  in  his 
work,  who  rather  are  taken  for  granted;  but  the 
emphasis  must  have  been  laid  upon  a  true  equal, 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  1 29 

one  who  should  make  a  new  beginning  and  speak 
with  the  commanding  authority  which  he  alone 
possessed.  Hence  this  view  impressed  itself  on 
the  whole  Old  Testament  church — as  we  see  in 
the  latest  oracle  of  Malachi,  and  as  is  vouched  for 
by  the  New  Testament  taken  simply  as  a  human 
document,  recording  among  Jews  and  Samaritans 
the  expectation  of  a  transcendent  Teacher  and 
Reformer,  such  as  the  world  had  but  once  seen 
before.  •  Indeed,  in  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
to  be  equal  to  Moses  was  to  be  greater,  for  if 
Moses  was  simply  repeated,  what  need  of  another 
lawgiver  or  founder?  How,  then,  can  the  denier 
of  revelation  account  for  these  facts;  first,  for  the 
expectation  ascribed  to  Moses,  and  secondly,  for  its 
fulfilment?  The  very  desire  and  anticipation 
were  singular.  Great  men  do  not  usually  subor- 
dinate themselves  to  others,  or  think  of  their 
work  as  waiting  on  some  greater  personality,  who 
is  to  take  up  its  unfinished  issues.  The  Christian 
scheme  of  things  accounts  for  this  in  Moses,  who 
looked  not  only  for  a  kindred  spirit  but  for  a  per- 
sonal Saviour,  whose  work  was  more  than  the 
sequel  of  his  own.  And  still  more  wonderful  is 
the  realization  of  this  hope,  which  after  fifteen 
centuries  arrived;  for  the  prevailing  opinion  even 
of  the  \vorld  is  that  Christ  is  of  the  same  mould 
with  Moses,  only  greater  and  more  commanding, 

9 


130  PRESENT  STATE  OK  THE 

working  in  the  same  element,  and  making  the 
work  of  Moses,  which  seemed  exhausted  or  de- 
feated, renew  and  exalt  itself  in  His  own.  By 
what  mystery,  then,  did  the  Christian  church  in 
its  faint  beginning  seize  on  this  greatness  of 
Christ,  dream— if  it  was  a  dream— that  Moses 
stooped  on  the  Mount  to  this  yet  obscure  Prophet, 
and  that  God  had  even  come  nearer  in  Him  than 
in  Moses'  days?  He  who  will  answer  this  will 
find  the  key  to  this  oracle  and  a  great  deal  more; 
he  who  will,  to  escape  an  answer,  deny  redemp- 
tion, with  prophecy  and  miracle  as  its  handmaids, 
must  make  all  history  commonplace,  and  treat 
Moses  and  Jesus  as  alike  only  in  bringing  them 
down  from  any  throne  of  greatness  to  share  its 
fall. 

Prophecy  takes  an  extraordinary  leap  forward, 
and  in  another  direction,  with  the  rise  of  the 
kingdom  of  Israel  in  David.  There  is  an  inter- 
mediate figure  in  Samuel.  But  the  history  itself 
passes  on  to  the  regal  period,  developing  what,  in 
spite  of  failure  in  Saul,  was  the  true  meaning  of 
all  -that  went  before,  and  bringing  upon  the  scene 
the  grandest  emblem  and  beginning  of  what,  in 
Messianic  days,  was  to  be  known  as  "  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  The  glimpses  in  the  oracles  of 
Jacob  and  of  Balaam,  which  had  once  and  again 
been  suddenly  renewed  in  the  dark  and  troubled 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  131 

ages  of  the  Judges,  now  break  out  into  steady  and 
concentrated  light,  and  in  connection  with  the 
person,  the  line,  and  almost  more,  the  Psalms  of 
David,  lighten  the  world  to  all  generations.  Da- 
vid is  indeed,  like  Moses,  one  of  the  turning-points 
in  human  history,  as  supreme  in  gifts,  as  immeas- 
urable in  grace;  if  not  so  awful  and  gigantic,  more 
tender  and  captivating,  and  by  his  very  fall  and 
repentance  brought  nearer  to  human  sympathy 
and  tears.  Fitted  by  unrivalled  military  genius 
and  statesmanship  to  give  the  chosen  people 
strength  and  repose,  and,  as  the  man  after  God's 
own  heart,  to  build  up  the  theocracy  as  a  great 
national  kingdom,  and  to  provide  it  with  a  sanc- 
tuary and  a  worship  that  have  made  Zion  the  joy 
of  the  whole  earth,  he  enriched  that  sanctuary 
and  every  other  with  the  incomparable  treasure  of 
a  sacred  song,  which,  unlike  every  other  form  of 
lyric,  leaves  all  terrestrial  glories  and  hopes  un- 
sung, and  amid  the  unutterable  sin,  sorrow,  and 
solitude  in  the  soul  of  man,  is  still  a  perpetual 
thirsting  after  God,  the  living  God.  This  mission 
of  David's,  unexhausted  and  inexhaustible,  has 
made  him  the  bosom  friend  of  all  saints  in  every 
age  and  clime;  and  to  this  belong  the  extreme 
vicissitudes  of  his  experience,  and  also  his  kingly 
elevation  and  trials,  fitting  in  to  the  divine  plan 
of  the  descent  from  his  line  of  a  yet  greater  King 


f 

132  PRESENT   STATE   OF  THE 

and  Sufferer.  The  announcement  by  the  prophet 
Nathan  to  David  that  his  line  should  include  the 
Messiah,  and  thus  last  for  ever,  is,  with  no  reason 
to  dispute  the  statement,  recorded  in  2  Sam.  7,  in 
connection  with  David's  purpose  to  build  a  tem- 
ple; and  with  equal  beauty  this  oracle  reappears 
in  the  "last  words  of  David,"  in  2  Sam.  23:1-8, 
where  he  recalls  his  twofold  function  as  one  stand- 
ing in  relation  to  the  Messiah  and  also  as  the 
Psalmist  of  Israel,  and  where  he  derives  comfort 
from  the  covenant  thus  made  as  "ordered  in  all 
things  and  sure."  It  does  not  follow,  indeed,  that 
David  had  no  revelations  as  to  the  Messiah  before 
this  last  and  crowning  one,  or  that  he  did  not  see 
in  his  own  checkered  and  wonderful  life  prefigura- 
tions  of  a  yet  stranger  and  more  glorious  destiny. 
This  is  one  of  the  questions  of  criticism  respect- 
ing which  there  never  will  be  absolute  unity,  as 
to  how  far  at  any  time  David  consciously  painted 
his  own  experience;  how  far  that  of  the  Messiah; 
and  how  many  of  his  royal  Psalms,  such  as  per- 
haps the  second  and  the  sixteenth,  preceded  the 
special  promise;  how  many,  like  the  eighteenth, 
twenty-second,  and  one  hundred  and  tenth,  fol- 
lowed it.  It  is  enough  that,  whether  of  Davidic 
or  Solomonic  or  yet  later  authorship,  an  ever-re- 
current echo  starts  up  in  the  Psalter  of  the  kingly 
birth  and  call  of  the  Messiah,  and  that  in  grand 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.   133 

resonant  cadences,  as  in  the  seventy-second,  the 
eighty-ninth,  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-second 
Psalms,  His  descent  from  David  fills  the  Christian 
ear  in  every  land. 

In  perfect  harmony  with  this  fixed  position  of 
Davidic  descent  are  many  announcements  in  the 
pages  of  that  written  prophecy  which  commenced 
about  800  B.  C.  and  ran  down  till  the  close  of  the 
canon  in  Malachi.  Thus  in  Isaiah  4:2  mention 
is  made  of  one  who  is  simply  spoken  of  as  the 
"  Branch"  (the  branch  of  Jehovah),  but  this  ti- 
tle is  connected  expressly  in  Isaiah  11:1  with  the 
family  of  David:  "There  shall  come  forth  a  rod 
out  of  the  stem  of  Jesse,  and  a  branch  shall  grow 
out  of  his  roots,"  with  all  the  usual  attributes  of 
the  Messianic  kingdom.  It  could  hardly  be  urged 
by  any  objector  that  this  might  possibly  apply  to 
some  other  descendant  of  Jesse  of  Bethlehem  than 
in  the  line  of  David ;  for  the  obvious  reason  of 
going  back  to  Jesse  is  the  decayed  state  into 
which  the  royal  family  was  to  fall;  just  as  in 
Amos  9:11  we  read,  "In  that  day  will  I  raise 
up  the  tabernacle  of  David  that  is  fallen."  In 
like  manner  the  great  oracle,  Isaiah  9:6,  "Unto 
us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given  "  is  con- 
nected with  David's  line,  for  in  the  next  verse  it 
is  said,  "Of  the  increase  of  his  government  and 
peace  there  shall  be  no  end  upon  the  throne  of  Da- 


134  PRESENT   STATE   OF  THE 

vicl."  While  these  utterances  all  seem  to  claim  a 
higher  nature  for  this  ruler,  as  also  in  Isaiah  7: 14, 
"Behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son, 
and  shall  call  his  name  Immanuel,"  connection 
with  David's  house  is  more  or  less  clearly  in- 
volved, as  even  in  this  last  case  the  sign  is  given 
as  a  pledge  that  in  spite  of  invasion  the  royal 
line  should  not  fail,  and  the  holy  land  is  thus 
addressed,  "  Thy  land,  O  Immanuel !"  Isaiah 
8:8. 

In  Jeremiah  the  same  notices  recur,  evidently 
colored  by  foregoing  anticipations  :  thus,  Jer. 
23:5>  33:I5>  "Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the 
L/ord,  that  I  will  raise  unto  David  a  righteous 
Branch,  and  a  King  shall  reign  and  prosper." 
' '  In  those  days,  and  at  that  time,  will  I  cause  the 
Branch  of  righteousness  to  grow  up  unto  David. ' ' 
There  is  a  text  in  B^ekiel  34:23,  "And  I  will  set 
up  one  Shepherd  over  them,  and  he  shall  feed 
them,  even  my  servant  David,"  which  speaks  as 
if  not  a  descendant  of  David,  but  David  himself, 
returning  to  earth,  might  be  the  future  king;  and 
the  same  language  is  found  in  37 : 24,  u  David  my 
servant  shall  be  king  over  them."  But  it  can 
hardly  be  supposed  that  this  prophet  who  shows 
himself  everywhere  so  familiar  with  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah  meant  anything  different;  and  we  may 
well  understand  also  in  the  same  light  the  utter- 


CHRISTI  AN^ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  135 

ance  in  Hosea  3:4,  5,  spoken  two  hundred  years 
before  E^ekiel,  in  which,  anticipating  a  captivity 
that  should  lead  to  the  people  of  Israel  being 
u many  days  without  a  king,"  he  adds,  "After- 
ward shall  the  children  of  Israel  return,  and  seek 
the  Lord  their  God  and  David  their  king."  To 
this  mass  of  testimony,  all  pointing  forward  to  a 
great  ruler,  who  should  spring  from  David,  and 
yet  be  greater,  I  would  simply  add,  as  the  refer- 
ences are  so  well  known,  the  two  texts,  one  of 
which,  Micah  5:2,  declares  that  this  ruler  should 
be  born  in  Bethlehem,  which  was  David's  birth- 
place;  and  another,  £ech.  9:9,  that  he  should 
come  riding  on  an  ass  to  Jerusalem,  which  had 
been  the  seat  of  David's  power.  We  are  thus 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  question,  How  have 
the  deniers  of  Christianity  as  a  revelation  treat- 
ed this  great  amount  of  striking  evidence,  and 
how  far  have  they  been  able  to  resolve  these  ap- 
parent prophecies  into  mere  natural  guesses  and 
coincidences  ? 

It  is  hard  to  be  denied  that  the  Jewish  litera- 
ture, antecedent  to  and  outside  of  Christianity, 
now  preserved  in  the  Talmud  and  kindred  wri- 
tings, applied  almost  all  the  texts  which  we  have 
quoted,  with  others  that  are  to  follow,  to  the  Mes- 
siah. The  only  noticeable  exception,  perhaps,  is 
the  passage  as  to  Immanuel,  where  in  their  inter- 


136  PRESENT   STATE   OF  THE 

pretations  there  is  something  like  silence,  though 
not  contradiction.  *  It  was  interesting  to  see  how, 
when  the  great  Deistical  controversy  of  last  cen- 
tury was  \vaged  against  the  argument  from  proph- 
ecy, as  against  all  other  parts  of  the  Christian 
argument,  the  leaders  of  English  unbelief  would 
treat  these  facts  in  the  history  of  Jewish  interpre- 
tation. Their  chief  representative,  Anthony  Col- 
lins, boldly  denied  not  only  that  Isaiah  and  the 
other  prophets  referred  to  any  single  person  or  de- 
scendant of  David,  who  thence  came  to  be  looked 
for  as  the  Messiah,  but  that  any  clear  or  consis- 
tent expectation  of  such  a  person  could  be  found 
in  the  line  of  Jewish  tradition  for  any  period 
worth  naming  before  Christ. 

It  was  not  possible  that  such  a  violation  of  all 
literary  fairness  should  not  be  avenged;  and  hence 
in  our  own  century,  Strauss,  in  order  to  build  up 
his  own  fabric,  has  run  the  ploughshare  of  de- 
struction over  the  foundations  of  that  of  Collins. 
It  was  not  necessary  in  the  eighteenth  century  to 
account  for  the  origin  of  Christianity;  but  this  is 
now  the  -life-and -death  question  of  unbelief;  and 
Strauss  required  for  this  purpose  a  long  and  wide 
currency  of  expectation  of  a  Messiah  among  the 

*  This  statement  is  borne  out  by  the  citations  under  the 
different  texts  from  the  great  work  of  Schoettgen,  "  De  Mes- 
sia."  Dresden  and  Leipzic,  1742. 


CHRISTIAN    ARGUMENT    FROM    PROPHECY.  137 

Jews  who  was  not  a  mere  conqueror  and  world- 
monarch,  but  a  teacher  also,  and  even  a  sufferer, 
whom  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  when  their  Master 
was  crucified,  might  console  themselves  by  find- 
ing, and  plausibly  teach  their  countrymen  to  find, 
in  the  Old  Testament  books  and  in  the  current 
interpretations  of  them.  Hence  he  cannot  make 
too  much  of  the  help  of  those  "Jews"  whom 
Collins  treated  so  contemptuously,  and  has  even 
possibly  exaggerated  the  Messianic  element  in 
Hebrew  and  Talmudical  literature.  But  his  con- 
cessions as  to  the  Old  Testament  are  most  impor- 
tant. Thus  in  his  "  Neues  L,eben  Jesu,  1864 
(p.  170),  he  says: 

"In  the  prophets  the  tendency  to  a  more 
spiritual  form  of  religion  was  accompanied  by 
another.  They  made,  no  doubt,  the  elevation 
of  the  people  of  Israel  to  true  piety  the  indispen- 
sable condition  of  better  times.  .  .  But  while 
they  painted  this  better  future  after  the  model  of 
the  good  old  times  which  the  people  had  enjoyed 
under  their  king  David,  there  was  connected 
with  this  hope  the  expectation  of  a  ruler  of 
David's  style,  of  David's  line,  who  should  exalt 
his  people  from  the  depth  of  their  present  fall  to 
a  height  of  power  and  prosperity  surpassing  the 
days  of  the  David  of  old." 

Thus  the  Christian  church,  at  the  very  hands 


138  PRESENT   STATE   OK  THE 

of  its  opponents,  regains  its  prophecies,  so  far  as 
their  early  origin  and  spiritual  meaning  are  con- 
cerned. And  now  the  only  question  is  as  to  the 
fulfilment;  for  if  Jesus  of  Nazareth  be  really  a 
descendant  of  the  royal  family  of  David,  here  is 
a  most  wonderful  reach  into  the  future  in  the 
case  of  one  who  is  confessedly  the  most  remarka- 
ble figure  in  history.  Hence  the  royal  descent  of 
Jesus  is  denied  by  Renan,  who  charges  him  with 
assuming  the  title  ' '  Son  of  David  ' '  not  ignorant- 
ly,  but  against  his  own  better  feelings.  "He 
allowed  them  to  give  him  a  title  without  which 
he  could  not  hope  for  any  success. ' '  * 

Renan  does  not  seem  to  see  that  if  Jesus  ac- 
cepted the  title,  as  is  granted,  he  must  have  done 
so  not  only  in  good  faith,  but,  considering  his 
means  of  knowledge,  with  moral  certainty;  and 
that  to  affirm  the  opposite  is  to  aggravate  all  the 
difficulties  and  contradictions  put  by  him  into 
what  he  admits  to  be  the  greatest  of  human 
characters.  Strauss  here,  though  he  does  not 
thus  degrade  the  Saviour  morally,  is  involved  in 
equal  perplexity.  He  grants  that  the  Messiah 
was  universally  believed  among  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple to  be  the  uSon  of  David."  He  grants  also 
that  Jesus  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah.  And  he 
grants  that  he  applied  to  himself  the  prophecies 
*  "ViedeJ£sus,"p.  238. 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  139 

above  quoted  from  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  which 
foretold  that  the  Messiah  should  have  this  descent. 
How  then  can  Strauss  exclude  the  inference  that 
Jesus  believed  himself  to  be  the  descendant  of 
David?  By  the  most  arbitrary  supposition,  that 
Jesus  wished  to  educate  his  disciples  and  the  peo- 
ple into  the  idea  that  the  Messiah  was  not  to  be 
the  Son  of  David,  which  was  a  mere  worldly  name, 
but  something  more  spiritual.  The  only  shadow 
of  proof  that  he  can  adduce  for  this  is  that  Jesus 
challenged  in  the  temple  the  current  interpreta- 
tion of  the  one  hundred  and  tenth  Psalm,  and 
wished  to  suggest  that  the  Messiah  was  not  to  be 
David's  Son,  but  his  Lord,  though  Strauss,  of 
course,  cannot  grant  that  he  contended  for  any 
higher  nature  as  his  prerogative.  But  what  this 
intermediate  something  between  Davidic  descent 
and  a  higher  nature  was  which  Jesus  here  sug- 
gested, Strauss  has  not  explained,  and  as  his  in- 
terpretation had  no  precursors,  so  it  has  had  no 
successors.  It  is  as  certain  then  as  anything  can 
be,  if  we  grant  the  least  historic  value  to  the 
•narratives,  that  Jesus  was  not- only  regarded  by 
his  followers,  who  had  the  best  means  of  know- 
ing, but  by  himself,  as  the  descendant  of  David; 
and  when  we  think  of  the  care  with  which  the 
Jews  kept  their  registers,  and  even  of  the  security 
which  a  great  family  tradition  like  this  always 


140  PRESENT   STATE   OF  THE 

carries  with  it  for  being  accurately  transmitted, 
we  may  consider  it,  in  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  case,  as  truly  remarkable  that  so  much  evi- 
dence confirms  this  lofty  claim.  There  are  diffi- 
culties in  the  genealogies,  but  these  have  not 
been  found  insuperable  by  the  ablest  scholars; 
and  the  fact  that  the  Davidic  birth  was  believed, 
not  only  by  the  evangelists,  but  by  Paul,  Rom. 
i :  3,  and  by  the  author  of  the  Apocalypse,  whom 
most  rationalists  now  regard  as  the  apostle  John, 
Rev.  22:16,  but  above  all  by  the  Founder  of 
Christianity  himself,  and  was  accepted  in  an 
age  when  the  whole  evidence  was  patent,  as 
a  foundation-principle  of  the  new  religion,  must 
be  held  far  to  outweigh  these  remaining  obscuri- 
ties. 

Far  stronger,  however,  does  this  Davidic  ele- 
ment become  when  we  take  in  the  actual  birth 
of  Jesus  in  Bethlehem,  apparently  foretold,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  Micah,  5:2.  Jewish  tradition  was 
here,  as  far  as  we  know,  unanimous;  and,  accor- 
ding to  the  Gospels,  it  found  its  accomplishment. 
Strauss  cannot  here  deny  the  agreement  with 
Micah;  for  as  the  mythical  theory  demands,  the 
history  itself  must  be  moulded  by  the  earlier 
notice  and  its  Jewish  echoes.  But  can  the  per- 
version of  history  as  he  holds  it  be  admitted,  and 
a  Christ  born  at  Nazareth  be  turned  into  one 


CHRISTIAN    ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  141 

born  in  Bethlehem  ?  Strauss  has  granted  how  dif- 
ficult it  was  to  do  this  when  the  facts  were  so 
widely  known.  Why,  then,  are  the  evangelists 
to  be  credited  with  a  tortuous  and  unhistorical 
procedure  instead  of  a  simple  and  true  one  ?  Or 
how  can  Strauss  and  Renan  find  any  authority 
for  roundly  asserting,  against  their  united  testi- 
mony, that  Jesus  was  born  at  Nazareth  ?  There  is 
here  nothing  like  miracle  in  the  fact  itself,  and 
now  to  follow,  now  to  desert,  the  evangelists  in 
natural  events  (and  it  was  quite  as  natural  for  a 
subsequently  renowned  Jew  to  be  born  at  Beth- 
lehem as  at  Nazareth)  is  mere  license.  Luke 
brings  Jesus  to  Bethlehem,  they  say,  to  fulfil  a 
prophecy;  and  do  they  not  remove  him  to  escape 
one  ?  The  prejudice  is  at  least  equal,  and  unfor- 
tunately for  the  modern  critics,  they  are  not,  and 
cannot  be,  themselves  authorities  in  ancient  his- 
tory. 

With  regard  to  the  triumphal  entry  of  Jesus 
into  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  David,  as  the  forego- 
ing notices  in  Zech.  9:9  are  so  clear  as  to  have 
drawn  after  them  an  immense  body  of  Jewish 
Messianic  tradition,  so  the  historical  accounts  in 
the  Gospels  are  less  contested.  Reimarus  in  the 
last  century  founded  on  -the  incident  his  attack 
on  Jesus  for  attempting  to  set  up  a  temporal  king- 
dom. Renan  incorporates  the  essential  facts  in 


142  PRESENT  STATE   OF  THE 

his  own  narrative.*  Strauss,  though  he  affirms 
that  the  tradition  was  sufficient  to  have  created 
the  history,  also  grants  that  the  history  in  itself 
might  well  have  happened,  f  The  whole  tenden- 
cy of  recent  Gospel  criticism,  and  especially  the 
failure  of  objections  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  which 
here,  in  a  rare  instance,  repeats  an  incident  fully 
stated  in  the  synoptists,  confirms  the  admission. 
L,et  it  be  remembered  also  that  the  tenth  verse  of 
the  ninth  chapter  of  Zechariah  has  had  a  great 
fulfilment:  for  he  who  rode  in  this  lowly  triumph 
into  Jerusalem  has  been  a  true  Davidic  king,  as 
elsewhere  pictured,  and  especially  in  the  seventy- 
second  Psalm,  cutting  off  the  chariot,  the  horse, 
and  the  battle-bow,  and  speaking  peace  to  the 
nations.  If  any  say  therefore  that  Jesus  rode  into 
Jerusalem  arbitrarily  to  fulfil  the  prophecy,  they 
are  met  by  its  own  terms;  for  the  history  of  the 
world  has  supported  him,  and  "His  dominion 
has  been  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  even 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

At  this  point  a  brief  notice  may  be 'given  of 
the  large  cycle. of  apparent  predictions  bearing  on 
Christ's  life  and  ministry.  It  seems  to  be  indi- 
cated that  some  messenger  should  go  before  him, 
as  in  Isaiah  40  :  3  and  Malachi  4:5,  6 ;  and  as  in 
'this  passage  Elijah  is  mentioned,  the  prevalent 
*  "  Vie  de  Jesus,"  p.  375.  f  "  Neues  Leben  Jesu,"  p.  526. 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT   FROM   PROPHECY.  143 

opinion  of  the  Jews  has  been  that  Elijah  should 
literally  return  and  do  this  office  for  the  Messiah. 
It  is  equally  certain  that  Jesus  claimed  to  be  thus 
heralded  by  the  Baptist  and  that  John  took  this 
position.  It  is  easy  to  say  that  there  is  mistake 
of  prophecy  or  exaggeration  of  friendly  relations 
here.  But  the  singularity  is  that  the  coincidence 
in  time  of  two  great  teachers — one  of  whom,  if 
the  narrative  be  worth  anything,  thus  stooped  to 
the  other — is  an  historical  fact  which  could  not 
have  been  foreseen;  and  all  that  is  needed  to 
make  it  a  prophecy  is  the  use  of  a  figurative  name 
for  a  literal,  a  feature  quite  common  in  the  pro- 
phetic style.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Riehm, 
a  high  authority  in  these  discussions,  though  ad- 
verse to  detached  and  sporadic  interpretations, 
regards  this  as  a  true  prediction,  and  one  which 
brings  out  the  depth  of  the  Old  Testament.* 

The  same  writer,  whose  reserve  and  caution 
no  one  will  question,  accepts  as  "  quite  unassail- 
able, by  historical  criticism,  the  surprising  ac- 
cordance of  New  Testament  fulfilment,  Matt. 
4  : 13,  with  the  Old  Testament  prophecy,  Isaiah 
8  :  23,  that  to  the  dwellers  by  the  Lake  of  Gen- 
nesaret  and  Jordan,  of  the  tribes  of  Zebulun  and 
Naphtali,  the  light  of  Messianic  salvation  should 

*  "  Messianische  Weissagung.    Studien  and  Kritiken,"  1869, 
II.  271. 


144  PRESENT  STATE   OF  THE 

first  arise;"*  where  it  may  be  added  that,  alike 
in  the  oracle  and  the  history,  the  * '  darkness ' '  of 
a  depressed,  outcast,  and  half -paganized  state 
strangely  contrasts  with  Kenan's  pictures  of  Gal- 
ilee. 

That  the  Messiah  should  work  miracles,  so  as 
at  least  not  to  fall  below  the  great  names  of  the 
Old  Testament  period,  was,  as  all  admit,  univer- 
sally expected  by  the  Jews.  The  writers  who 
support  the  mythical  or  legendary  theory  appeal 
to  Isaiah  35  :  5,  6,  which  furnished,  according  to 
them,  a  kind  of  programme  such  as  Jesus  was 
bound  to  fulfil.  Strauss  is  here  inclined  to  think 
that  Jesus  disclaimed  in  his  reply  to  the  messen- 
gers of  John  physical  wonders,  and  applied  the 
text  of  Isaiah  only  to  His  cures  on  the  soul.  All 
the  literal  cures  which  he  allows  to  Jesus  were 
due  to  nervous  sympathy  and  influence  of  imagi- 
nation. But  Strauss  has  here  unwittingly  in- 
volved himself  in  great  difficulty.  He  grants 
that  the  people  were  sufficiently  cool  to  credit  the 
Baptist  with  no  miracles.  He  grants  that  the 
class  of  marvels  which  were  truly  miraculous, 
such  as  cures  of  the  blind  and  raisings  of  the 
dead,  were  then,  as  always,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  distinguishable  from  natural  effects  on  the 
nervous  system,  f  He  also  grants  that  the  people 

*  Riehm,  p.  277.        f  "  Neues  Leben  Jesu/'  p.  267. 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  145 

expected  from  the  Messiah  the  greatest  wonders. 
He  has  therefore  failed  to  explain  how  miracles 
without  reality  made  such  an  impression,  and  has 
thus  left  the  supernatural  narratives  as  necessary 
as  ever.  But  if  so,  do  not  the  prophecies  also 
stand  ?  Had  the  words  of  Isaiah  been  meant  for 
true  miracles  they  could  not  have  been  stronger ; 
and  it  is  one  of  the  infirmities  of  this  scheme  that 
in  seeking  to  generate  an  ideal  miracle  from  an 
ideal  prophecy  it  threatens  to  establish  the  real- 
ity of  both. 

All  ages  have  admired  the  exquisite  beauty  of 
thought  and  harmony  of  numbers  with  which  the 
Davidic  king,  in  the  first  half  of  Isaiah,  is  brought 
upon  the  scene,  while  all  nature  is  transformed  by 
his  sceptre  into  gentleness  and  peace.  Not  less 
enchanting  are  the  pictures  in  the  second  half  of 
the  book,  where  the  monarch  passes  into  the 
teacher,  the  comforter,  the  inexhaustibly  tender 
and  patient  servant  of  Jehovah,  who  feeds  his 
flock  like  a  shepherd,  who  has  the  tongue  of  the 
learned  that  he  may  know  how  to  speak  a  word 
in  season  to  him  that  is  weary,  "who  does  not 
cry  nor  lift  up,  nor  cause  his  voice  to  be  heard  in 
the  street,  and  who  does  not  quench  the  smoking 
flax  nor  break  the  bruised  reed." 

Is  there  one  being  in  all  history  to  whom  these 

words  and  many  others  are  so  instinctively  applied 

10 


146  PRESENT   STATE   OF  THE 

as  to  Jesus  Christ?  and  could  he  have  more  sig- 
nificantly begun  his  ministry  in  Nazareth  than  by 
quoting  and  applying  to  himself  the  utterance, 
tc  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me,  because 
the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 
unto  the  meek,"  etc.?  Isa.  61  :  i.  Do  we  not 
hear  already  the  words  of  beatitude,  ' '  Blessed  are 
the  meek,"  "Blessed  are  they  that  mourn," 
' '  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden"?  It  is  vain  to  speak  here  of  a  first  and 
second  Isaiah.  If  there  are  two,  it  is  still  more 
wonderful  than  if  there  is  one.  Nor  is  the  argu- 
ment weakened  by  the  various  application  of  the 
title,  "  Servant  of  Jehovah,"  now  to  a  collective 
Israel,  and  now  to  one  individual  or  uBlect,"  in 
whom  the  idea  of  service  is  perfectly  realized:  for 
much  of  prophecy,  as  in  the  Psalms,  is  equally 
typical,  and  the  unity  of  Christ  and  his  body  is 
thus  revealed.  The  applicability  of  these  Isaian 
oracles  to  the  meek  and  lowly  Teacher  has  im- 
pressed even  recent  leaders  of  unbelief:  for  Renan 
has  caught  something  of  sympathy  with  their  in- 
comparable charm,  for  which  Christians  may  for- 
give him  much  that  is  otherwise  alien  and  de- 
grading; and  Strauss  has  been  softened  almost 
into  recognition.  He  holds  that  Jesus  applied  all 
these  features  of  meekness,  patience,  and  suffering 
to  himself,  and  formed  himself  on  this  wonderful 


CHRISTIAN    ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  147 

model,  instead  of  the  warlike  and  victorious  Mes- 
siah of  popular  anticipation;  and  now  that  these 
oracles — hundreds  of  years  old  —  even  if  they 
pointed  only  to  the  better  part  of  a  race,  should 
thus  at  length  come  true  of  it,  and  of  one  tran- 
scendent person  in  it,  who  is  the  Teacher  of  the 
world,  is  not  this  almost  as  strange  as  what  a 
Christian  believes  ? 

Of  all  the  predictions  claimed  for  the  Messiah 
the  most  wonderful  are  those  which  bear  upon  his 
death.  This  is  a  fresh  singularity,  that,  as  Chris- 
tians attach  so  much  importance  to  this  event,  the 
Old  Testament  should  seem  here  also  to  concen- 
trate its  rays.  Jewish  tradition  is  here  less  copi- 
ous, though  not  without  striking  testimonies;  and 
the  offence  of  the  cross,  either  before  or  after  the 
Christian  period,  led  to  the  conception  of  two 
Messiahs:  the  one,  the  Son  of -Joseph,  who  should 
suffer  and  die ;  the  other,  the  Son  of  David,  who 
should  reign.  When  the  prophecies  are  now 
studied  in  the  light  of  history,  much  of  this  dark- 
ness is  cleared  away  and  is  seen  to  have  lain 
mostly  in  the  prejudices  of  Jewish  readers.  Mod- 
ern difficulties  are  largely  of  the  same  character, 
such  as  objections  to  the  doctrine  of  atonement, 
aggravated  by  the  reluctance  to  admit  what,  if 
true,  is  so  visibly  supernatural.  How  far  recent 
German  theology  has  emerged  from  these  strug- 


148  PRESENT  STATE   OF  THE 

gles  may  be  seen  in  writers  whom  no  one  will 
charge  with  "blind  orthodoxy."  Thus  Riehm 
says:  "Of  this  agreement,  the  most  remarkable 
example  is  the  22d  Psalm,  where  the  image  of 
the  crucified  Christ,  surrounded  by  his  triumphant 
enemies,  comes  out  unmistakably  for  every  Chris- 
tian eye."  He  in  the  same  place  also  appeals  to 
"the  agreement  of  the  picture  which  the  proph- 
ecy of  the  '  Servant  of  Jehovah '  has  drawn  with 
that  of  Christ  in  many  quite  special  features." 
Isa.  42  :  2;  50  :  5,  etc. ;  53  :  2.  To  the  same  effect 
Delitzsch,  in  discussing  Isaiah  53,  says:  "Now 
for  the  first  time  the  type  of  sacrifice,  which  was 
previously  dumb,  begins  to  speak  through  the 
idea  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah.  He  pours  out 
his  soul  in  death,  and  his  soul  thus  brings  a  satis- 
factory offering,  which  atones  and  makes  repara- 
tion for  the  sins  of  the  people.  He  takes  the  guilt 
of  his  people's  sins  upon  himself.  ....  The  Ser- 
vant of  Jehovah  dies  and  is  buried,  but  not  in 
order  to  remain  in  death,  but  that  he  may  live 
eternally  as  the  priestly  and  royal  head  of  a  great 
congregation."*  Thus  also,  when  he  has  applied 
to  Christ  the  two  oracles  in  Zechariah  that  speak 
of  the  pierced  One  (12  :  10),  and  of  the  Fountain 
opened  (13  :  i),  ,he  adds  in  regard  to  the  smitten 
Shepherd  (13:7),  "The  New  Testament  refer- 

*  Delitzsch,  "  Messianic  Prophecies,"  p.  86.     Clark,  1880. 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM   PROPHECY.  149 

ences,  Matt.  26  : 31,  etc. ;  Mark  14  : 27,  are  so  far 
fully  justified  as  they  apply  these  utterances  to 
Jesus  Christ,  to  his  death  and  its  consequences."* 
So  also  Oehler,  while  granting  a  starting-point  in 
a  collective  Israel,  says  :  u  Chapter  53  [in  Isaiah] 
can  only  refer  to  an  individual.  Hence  Ewald, 
e.  g.,  regards  this  portion  as  interpolated  from  an 
older  book,  in  which  a  single  martyr  was  spoken 
of.  For  it  is  not  the  heathen  who  speak,  as  the 
utterly  erroneous  view  now  so  widely  dissemi- 
nated asserts,  but  the  prophet,  now  in  the  name 
of  the  prophets  in  general,  ver.  i,  'Who  hath 
believed  our  report?'  and  now  in  that  of  the  peo- 
ple, ver.  6,  'All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray,' 
etc.  The.  sense  of  guilt  is  so  vivid,  even  in  the 
case  of  the  prophets,  who  know  themselves  to  be 
the  servants  of  God,  that  they  include  themselves 
in  the  sinful  mass  of  the  people,  for  whom  an 
atonement  is  needed:  'We  are  all  as  the  unclean.' 
Comp.  59  : 12.  Hence  a  valid  intercession  for  the 
people  cannot  proceed  from  them  (59  : 16),  nor  can 
even  the  aggregate  of  God's  servants  effect  an 
atonement.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  upon  the  foun- 
dation of  its  intuition  of  those  witnesses  who  have 
suffered  in  the  cause  of  truth  that  prophecy  rises 
to  the  intuition  of  One  in  whom  the  image  of  the 
faithful  servant  is  complete— of  One  who,  not  for 

*  Delitzsch,  "Messianic  Prophecies,"  p.  106.     Clark,  1880. 


PRESENT  STATE  OK  THE 

his  own  sins,  but  as  the  substitute  of  the  people, 
and  for  their  sins,  lays  down  his  life."* 

These  testimonies  of  eminent  Christian  theo- 
logians, trained  in  somewhat  different  schools,  are 
interesting;  but  far  more  striking,  to  my  mind,  is 
the  concession  here  of  Strauss,  one  of  the  most 
important  in  the  course  of  apologetic  literature. 
It  is  known  that  in  his  early  editions  of  his  work, 
from  1835  onward,  he  denied  to  Christ  any  cer- 
tain knowledge  of  his  own  death  or  announce- 
ment of  it  to  his  disciples.  But  in  1864  his  new 
life  of  Jesus  discloses  that  on  so  serious  a  question 
he  has  changed  his  ground.  He  avows  his  belief 
that  Jesus  not  only  announced  his  own  decease, 
but  did  so  in  terms  of  such  oracles  as  .Isaiah  53, 
which  had  been  the  model  of  his  life  and  doctrine. 

"As  to  the  calling  of  the  teacher,  patience  is 
indispensable,  as  the  unwearied  instructor  must 
take  into  account  ingratitude,  and  overcome  the 
prejudices  of  men  by  long-suffering.  As  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Jewish  prophets  examples  were  before 
Him  of  several  who  had  sealed  their  fidelity  to 
the  religion  of  Jehovah,  as  through  them  pro- 
claimed and  defended,  by  a  martyr's  death,  there 
thus  arose  for  him  an  approximation  to  those 
features  of  the  servant  of  Jehovah  which  con- 

*  Oehler,  "  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament,"  II.  p.  426.    Clark, 
1875. 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  151 

tained  suffering,  torture,  and  cruelties  even  unto 
death.  It  is  possible  that  from  the  very  begin- 
ning Jesus  kept  closer  to  the  features  of  the  first 
class,  and  that  he  wished  to  be  the  ^Messiah  in  the 
sense  of  the  still  and  patient  Teacher;  but  the 
more  he  encountered  among  the  people  a  want  of 
receptivity  and  positive  resistance,  the  more  that 
he  saw  the  hatred  of  the  rulers  excited  against 
him,  and  was  convinced  of  its  irreconcilable  op- 
position, the  more  had  he  occasion  to  take  up  also 
the  strictly  suffering  features  of  Isaiah  5Oth,  52d, 
and  53d  into  his  Messianic  conception,  to  ponder 
the  examples  of  earlier  prophets,  whom  he  alludes 
to  in  Matt.  23:37  and  L,uke  13:33  and  elsewhere, 
expecting,  like  them,  extreme  measures,  appre- 
hension, condemnation,  and  execution,  and  to 
prepare  his  followers  for  such  an  issue.  That 
point  of  view  also  which  led  him  to  contemplate 
the  devotion  of  his  life  as  a  'ransom  for  many/ 
Matt.  20  :  28,  his  death  as  a  reconciling  sacrifice, 
he  could  well  have  appropriated  to  himself  from 
Isaiah  53,  as  this  view  in  general  lay  near  the 
Jewish  circle  of  ideas."* 

Thus  for  once  there  is  agreement  between  the 
Christian  writers  and  the  leader  of  unbelief  as  to 
the  long  antecedence  of  the  oracles  and  their  his- 
toric fulfilment,  both  in  the  meaning  of  the 

*  "  Neucs  Lebcn  Jcsu,"  pp.  133,  224. 


I52  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 

prophet  and  the  spirit  and  aim  of  the  Sufferer. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  bring  in  features  of  suffering 
from  other  Scriptures;  the  broad  general  outline 
of  that  one  chapter  is  unique  in  history.  Nor  can 
it  be  said  that  the  dwelling  on  the  prophecy  and 
repeating  it  led  to  its  fulfilment.  Christ  had  no 
power  to  secure  his  own  public  condemnation  and 
execution  on  ordinary  principles.  Hence  this  re- 
strained Strauss  so  long  from  admitting  that  He 
predicted  such  a  death.  But  the  strength  of  the 
Christian  position  remains  and  is  confessed.  The 
premises  are  admitted,  of  which  Christianity  is 
the  only  conclusion,  and  the  name  of  Jesus  stands 
written  upon  the  greatest  phenomenon  (we  must 
not  call  it  miracle)  in  history. 

With  regard  to  the  resurrection  of  the  Messiah 
the  light  of  prophecy  is  much  less  distinct  and 
clear.  Still,  both  the  twenty-second  Psalm  and 
the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  which  speak  of 
the  Messiah's  death  and  follow  it  up  by  setting 
forth  his  life  and  victory,  thereby  imply  a  resur- 
rection. In  like  manner  the  sixteenth  Psalm,  v. 
10,  whether  we  read  it  in  the  singular  or  plural, 
requires  a  resurrection;  for  corruption  is  escaped 
only  by  His  people  and  by  himself  through  his 
rising  from  the  grave.  A  typical  prophecy  was 
here  in  place — the  sign  of  Jonah,  as  Christ  inter- 
preted it;  and  though  this  may  not  have  been  un- 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.    153 

derstood  in  its  full  meaning  before  the  event,  it 
had  in  it  a  true  inherent  light,  and  is  now  added 
to  the  impressive  list  of  singularities  that  by  a 
proved  correspondence  connect  at  every  point  the 
Old  Testament  with  the  New.  Those  who  have 
regarded  Jesus  as  able  to  learn  from  the  Old  Tes- 
tament his  own  death,. but  bound  to  stop  there,  or 
only  led  to  hope  for  a  spiritual  life  in  heaven  or  a 
victory  of  his  cause  on  earth,  are  incoherent;  and 
the  gospel  narratives,  which  make  his  views  of 
prophecy  embrace  both  death  and  resurrection, 
are  at  once  grander  in  their  scheme  and  truer  in 
their  history. 

One  word  in  regard  to  the  dates  in  prophecy 
that  have  always  been  remarked,  though  some  are 
less  secure  than  others.  The  sceptre  was  not  to 
depart  from  Judah;  and  in  the  very  time  when 
the  last  trace  of  self-government  \vas  -vanishing, 
the  Messiah  came.  He  was  to  come  to  the  sec- 
ond temple,  Mai.  3:1,  and  make  its  glory  great- 
er than  that  of  the  first,  Hag.  2  : 7-9.  Seventy 
weeks  were  to  elapse,  Dan.  9:24,  25,  from  the 
decree  to  rebuild  Jerusalem  unto  Messiah  the 
Prince,  which  upon  the  calculation  of  a  day  for 
a  year,  Ezek.  4:  6,  have  been  plausibly  carried 
down  by  Dr.  Pusey  and  many  others  from  the 
edict  of  Artaxerxes  (B.  C.  457)  to  the  opening  of 
Christ's  ministry.  More  solid  than  any  of  these 


154  PRESENT   STATE   OF  THE 

is  the  coming  of  the  new  kingdom,  in  Dan.  2  and 
7,  after  four  great  world-monarchies,  which  the 
same  writer  has,  in  its  Messianic  fulfilment,  so 
ably  defended  against  the  shifting  schemes  of  re- 
cent criticism.  Data  like  these  undoubtedly  pro- 
duced a  wide-spread  expectation  of  some  great 
kingdom  to  rise  in  the  Bast,  of  which  we  have 
evidence  in  the  well-known  passages  of  Josephus, 
of  Tacitus  and  Suetonius,  and  echoes  in  the 
Sibylline  books  and  Fourth  Eclogue  of  Virgil. 
Even  if  we  had  had  no  other  Old  Testament  indi- 
cations, the  very  connection  of  this  great  approach- 
ing change  with  the  Jewish  people  and  with  Je- 
rusalem would  have  been  a  chronological  land- 
mark, since  on  any  fair  construction  the  events 
could  not  have  happened  had  Israel  already  be- 
come a  wandering  multitude,  without  a  territory 
and  a  capital,  as  they  have  been  for  eighteen  cen- 
turies. 

ii. 

In  passing  over  to  the  branch  of  the  prophetic 
argument  which  treats  of  Christianity  as  its  sub- 
ject, Christ  himself  is  not  left  behind.  It  is  Christ 
in  his  church,  as  before  in  his  own  person.  The 
prophecies  bearing  on  Christianity  may  be  reduced 
to  three  points — its  succession  to  Judaism,  its  vic- 
tories, and  its  failures  and  corruptions. 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT  FROM   PROPHECY.    155 

i.  The  succession  of  Christianity  to  Judaism  is 
one  of  its  most  interesting  features.  The  relation 
of  type  and  antitype  exists  nowhere  else  among 
religions.  No  one  can  say  that  any  of  the  forms 
of  paganism  is  the  same  analogue  of  the  gospel  as 
Judaism  is;  nor  can  Judaism  be  said  to  be  in  the 
same  sense  an  analogue  of  Mohammedanism, 'for 
they  stand  more  nearly  on  the  same  level,  and  the 
one  is  a  plagiarism  from  the  other.  Had  Moham- 
med been  able  to  make  out  in  his  system  an  ad- 
vance in  the  line  of  Christianity,  or  even  of  Juda- 
ism (as  he  wished  to  do),  this  would  have  been 
more  like  the  voice  of  Providence  than  anything 
he  had  to  show.  But  Christianity  in  relation  to 
Judaism,  as  the  Christian  understands  both,  is  this 
visibly  higher  type;  while  the  same  thing  cannot 
be  said  of  Judaism  after  the  Jewish  Messiah 
comes,  as  compared  with  what  it  is  before.  The 
Jewish  Messiah  has  little  to  bring  of  prophecy, 
and  nothing  of  priesthood  ;  and  his  kingdom  is 
more  external  than  that  of  Christianity.  Even 
the  true  Old  Testament  Judaism  was  inferior, 
with  youth,  immaturity x  and  restraint;  but  still 
there  was  a  vigorous  family  likeness.  There  is 
thus  a  real  foretoken  of  something  to  come — a  cov- 
enant God,  a  moral  worship,  with  all  its  local  and 
ceremonial  features,  an  availing  though  future 
propitiation,  a  high  though  unrealised  practical 


156  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 

standard,  and  a  mission  to  the  world  yet  held  in 
abeyance.  Was  not  this,  then,  a  prophecy  of  the 
coming  religion,  as  the  lower  type  in  nature  is  a 
prophecy  of  the  higher?  If  another  system,  or 
rather  the  old  system  under  new  conditions,  has 
redeemed,  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  explains, 
the  promise  of  the  L,evitical  law,  given  wings  to 
the  Decalogue,  and  bursting  its  own  embank- 
ments, diffused  its  blessings  among  all  nations, 
"shall  we  not  see  in  those  tendencies  and  capaci- 
ties the  augury  of  this  future  ?  But  the  Old  Tes- 
tament is  not  thus  a  silent  witness:  it  is  a  speak- 
ing one;  and  besides  the  testimony  as  to  the 
Prophet  like  unto  Moses,  there  is  the  great  an- 
nouncement of  a  better  priesthood,  Psa.  110:4, 
"Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of 
Melchizedek;"  and  there  is  also  in  Jer.  31:31 
the  clear  assertion  of  a  new  and  better  covenant 
of  which  the  distinction  should  be  its  superiority 
in  spiritual  influence  as  seen  in  laws  written  on 
the  heart.  Now,  can  any  candid  unbeliever  deny 
that  this  is  the  superiority  of  Christianity  over 
Judaism,  even  in  its  best  state,  and  much  more  as 
depraved  by  Jewish  traditions?  Is  not  then  this 
sublimation  and  consummation  of  Judaism  the 
fulfilment  of  prophecy  ?  And  ought  it  not  to  be 
so  regarded  by  all  writers  who — as  almost  all  ra- 
tionalists do — here  side  with  Christ  against  his 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM   PROPHECY.  I5/ 

Jewish  opponents,  and  concede  that  relatively  to 
them  he  has  made  a  great  advance  in  the  religion 
of  the  world  ?  It  is  impressive  to  an  unbeliever, 
but  still  more  to  a  Jew,  who  sees  his  ancient  sanc- 
tuary in  ruin  or  worse  than  ruin,  and  his  syna- 
gogue in  all  lands  confronted  by  the  Christian 
church,  which  has  transferred  to  itself  all  his 
watchwords  and  memorials,  his  patriarchs  and 
his  kings,  his  law  and  his  prophets,  his  altars  and 
his  sacrifices,  his  circumcision  and  his  passover, 
his  Zion,  .his  Jerusalem,  his  Canaan,  and  has  con- 
nected them  with  one  great  Presence  which  ex- 
alts and  overshadows  all !  -  Is  there  not  here  a 
great  cycle  in  the  spiritual  world?  Can  chance 
foretell  and  then  achieve  such  revolutions  as  these? 

2.  The  next  striking  point  is  the  prediction  of 
victories  for  Christianity  in  the  form  not  only  of 
development,  but  of  diffusion  and  universal  preva- 
lence. How  great  was  the  unlikelihood  of  any 
fulfilment!  No  one  can  say  that  the  prophecy 
here  comes  after  the  event;  for  the  prophets  feel 
that  they  have  to  contend  rather  with  unbelief  in 
their  hearers,  and  call  on  the  mighty  power  of 
Jehovah  as  alone  equal  to  the  extremity. 

"I  the  Lord  have  called  thee  in  righteous- 
ness, and  will  hold  thine  hand,  and  will  keep 
thee  and  give  thee  for  a  covenant  of  the  people 
and  for  a  light  to  the  Gentiles."  Isa.  42:6. 


I$8  PRESENT  STATE   OF  THE 

Whence  this  unwonted  faith,  even  greater 
than  the  world-wide  sympathy  and  philanthropy 
of  which  it  is  the  minister?  There  is  no  progress 
here  either  in  the  range  of  expectation  or  in  its 
confidence.  Both  are  as  wide  and  strong  in  the 
days  of  Abraham  as  of  the  last  of  the  prophets. 
Many  details  are  supplied  and  many  astonishing 
figures  employed :  as  that  the  Jewish  temple 
should  be  exalted  to  the  top  of  the  mountains, 
and  be  the  centre  of  a  universal  pilgrimage,  Mi- 
cah  4:1;  Isa.  2:1;  that  wild  and  savage  beasts 
should  be  transformed,  Isa.  11:6-9;  ^la^  a  mighty 
river  should  go  forth-  towards  the  Dead  Sea,  and 
heal  everything  in  its  course,  Ezek.  47:1-12;  that 
a  Spirit  poured  out  from  heaven  should  inspire  a 
universal  gift  of  prophecy,  Joel  2:28,  29.  Under 
these  figures  such  solid  realities  are  conveyed*  as 
the  utter  abolition  of  idolatry,  Isa.  2:18;  the 
spread  of  the  knowledge  of  Jehovah  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea,  Isa.  11:9;  the  prevalence  of  a  deep 
holiness,  Zech.  14:20;  and  the  practical  enjoyment 
by  nations  of  righteousness  and  peace,  Psa.  67: 12- 
14.  These  blessings  are  invariably  represented 
as  going  forth  from  the  Jewish  people  to  other 
nations,  and  again  and  again  from  Jerusalem,  Isa. 
2:3;  Zech.i4:8;  and  while  they  are  always  con- 
nected with  a  new  appearance  of  Jehovah,  they 
are  very  often  specialised  as  introduced  by  the 


CHRISTIAN    ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  159 

Messiah,  and  also,  in  signal  instances,  Psa.  22; 
Psa.  53,  traced  up  to  his  sufferings  and  death. 
How,  then,  was  this  Jewish  enthusiasm  for  the 
salvation  of  the  world  originated,  in  a  race  in 
many  respects  so  narrow  and  limited  ?  How  did 
it  survive  the  dampening  effect  of  decay  and  cor- 
ruption in  their  own  religion,  flourish  in  exile, 
and  resist  the  incrustations  of  local  and  national 
sectarianism,  till  it  found  a  glorious  revival  in 
Jesus  and  his  disciples,  who  were  ready  to  die  for 
its  fulfilment,  and  who  actually  did  begin  the  ful- 
filment of  it  in  a  wonderful  degree?  Whence  this 
magnificent  ideal  of  a  universal  religion  totally 
wanting  in  paganism,  wanting  too  in  Moham- 
medanism, except  with  dependence  on  brute 
force  and  concessions  to  sinful  lust  which  de- 
grade and  ruin  it?  The  Christian  church  has 
been  struggling,  as  yet  inadequately,  for  eighteen 
centuries  to  realise  it ;  but  it  fires  her  warriors 
still  with  congenial  ardor,  and  the  noblest  of 
them,  falling  in  the  field,  throws  the  casket  which 
contains  it  outward  into  the  region  which  it  is  yet 
to  conquer.  The  greater  the  soul,  the  more  does 
it,  like  these  martyrs  of  an  illimitable  and  imper- 
ishable faith,  "move  about  in  worlds  not  real- 
ized," "weep  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon,"  and 
"  favor. the  dust  of  Zion,"  the  more  does  it  dwell 
with  their  spirits  and  with  His  who  from  the  re- 


l6o  PRESENT   STATE   OF  THE 

jection  of  the  cross  looked  forth  upon  a  universal 
empire  of  truth  and  love.  Is  this  enthusiasm  and 
the  success  which  has  crowned  it  soluble  upon 
any  principles  of  unbelief?  or  has  unbelief  in  it- 
self the  moral  greatness  to  suggest  an  answer  ? 

3.  The  last  element  of  wonder  in  these  proph- 
ecies of  victory  is  the  shade  of  delay,  reaction,  and 
corruption  tJiat  blends  with  success.  In  the  proph- 
ets it  is  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively,  delay  and  fail- 
ure. Far  from  being  moved  to  write  their  prophe- 
cies, as  some  have  supposed,  only  as  suggested  by 
the  inarch  of  Assyrian  armies  or  the  last  rumors 
from  Egypt  or  Babylon,  or  from  seeing  in  the 
next  change  of  the  political  horizon  the  birth- 
pang  of  the  Messianic  age,  they  rise  through  the 
grandeur  of  the  events  described  into  something 
of  their  own  tranquillity,  and  can  make  their 
watchwords,  "He  that  believeth  shall  not  make 
haste,"  Isa.  28:16;  "I  the  Lord  will  hasten  it 
in  his  time,"  Isa.  60:22.  Hence  they  can  re- 
peat each  other's  oracles,  and  form  a  chain  of 
expectation  stretching  through  many  years;  and 
in  the  great  future  they  can  blend  with  calmness 
features  of  disappointment  in  the  reception  of  the 
coming  salvation,  and  most  of  all,  the  fall  of 
Israel,  which,  as  in  Isaiah  49,  mysteriously  dark- 
ens the  calling  of  the  Gentiles.  They  can  hard- 
ly, indeed,  anticipate  the  corruptions  of  Christian- 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  l6l 

ity:  for  the  prophetic  language  had  hardly  lights 
and  shades  for  the  varying  features  of  an  Israel 
beyond  Israel.  But  in  the  New  Testament  this 
generality  is  resolved;  and  the  strange  fortunes 
of  the  gospel  itself  in  history,  as  made  up 'of 
triumph  and  failure,  of  purity  and  corruption,  of 
strength  and  weakness,  and  that  not  only  in  one 
age,  but  as  more  or  less  cleaving  all  through  to 
its  career,  are  most  strikingly  delineated.  Broad- 
ly there  stands  out  the  unbelief  of  the  Jews,  and 
their  exclusion  from  the  kingdom,  in  the  utter- 
ances of  Christ  himself  and  the  apostle  Paul;  nor 
can  this  be  regarded  as  mere  natural  revenge,  for 
it  is  announced  with  the  deepest  sadness,  and  a 
day  of  repentance  is  descried.  The  history  of  the 
world  has  followed  the  one  set  of  notices,  but  has 
not  yet  overtaken  the  other;  and  how  is  this  fore- 
sight so  far  to  be  explained  ? 

Equally  striking  is  the  foreshadowing  of  Chris- 
tianity in  its  other  miscarriages  and  reverses. 
Most  of  all  its  corruptions  are  marvellously  pre- 
indicated.  While  the  great  parable  of  the  sower 
predicts  only  a  partial  success  for  the  divine  seed, 
the  two  kindred  parables  of  the  tares  and  of  the 
net  cast  into  the  sea  foretell  and  cover  all  de- 
pravations ol  doctrine  and  inconsistencies  of  prac- 
tice. It  is  still  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  of 
heaven  tarnished,  degraded,  almost  buried,  by 
ii 


l62  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 

earth.  Nothing  gives  us  a  higher  idea  both  of 
the  intellectual  reach  and  moral  greatness  of  the 
Saviour  than  these  parables  !  The  kingdom  of 
heaven,  with  all  its  sad  degeneracy,  is  worth 
living  for  and  dying  for;  and  though  He  comes 
not  to  send  peace  on  earth  but  a  sword,  he  is 
straitened  till  his  baptism  is  accomplished.  Those 
who  condemn  Christianity  for  its  abuses  find 
their  objections  here  foreclosed.  A  religion  so 
candid,  so  prescient  of  its  sorest  wounds  in  the 
house  of  its  friends,  might  disarm  even  the  preju- 
dice of  its  enemies.  The  very  largeness  and  sad- 
ness of  its  confessions  might  propitiate  their  dis- 
like. It  is  not  an  outward  foe  that  Paul  describes 
in  Second  Thessalonians,  but  one  seated  in  the 
temple  of  God,  and  rather  restrained  by  outward 
hindrance,  as  the  Christian  writers  so  generally 
understood  the  passage  of  Roman  persecution  at 
length  withdrawn,  and  opening  the  way  for  the 
church  to  generate  a  worse  antichrist  from  its 
"own  bosom.  So  the  antichrist  of  the  Apocalypse, 
whatever  else  it  may  include,  cannot  exclude 
the  shapes  of  heresy,  pride,  and  tyranny  under 
Christian  names,  which  like  successive  monsters 
from  the  abyss  have  made  war  upon  the  Lamb 
and  delayed  the  peaceful  consummation  of  his 
reign.  These  embroiled,  entangled,  inextricable 
scenes,  only  to  be  interpreted  as  they  are  lived 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.    163 

through  by  a  sad  but  ever  brightening  experi- 
ence, how  could  they  have  been  conceived  be- 
forehand by  any  mortal  intelligence?  How  could 
they  in  their  grandeur,  their  terror,  their  ultimate 
dramatic  unity  and  outburst  of  light  and  praise, 
be  other  than  the  forecastings  of  One  who,  above 
the  illusions  of  superficial  strife  and  sudden  vic- 
tory, suffers  *he  whole  unfathomable  powers  of 
evil  to  disclose  themselves,  that  in  one  all-inclu- 
sive conflict  they  may  be  defeated  and  destroyed? 

in. 

The  third  prophetic  topic  to  be  noticed  is  the 
bearing  which  prediction  has  on  the  history  and 
circumstances  of  the  Jews.  I  shall  speak  first  of 
the  captivities  and  dispersions  of  the  Jewish 
people,  and  secondly,  of  the  New  Testament 
prophecies  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

i.  There  is,  to  begin  with,  not  the  slightest 
doubt  that  Jeremiah,  following  Micah,  who  lived 
a  century  before,  foretold  the  destruction  and 
captivity  in  the  Chaldsean  period,  and  added  the 
notice  of  a  return  after  seventy  years.  This  is 
recorded  in  Jer.  25:9-11;  and  the  circumstances 
are  such  that  if  the  delivery  of  this  prophecy  be 
denied,  no  event  in  the  life  of  the  prophets  can 
be  accepted.  Now  this  issue  could  not  have  been 
foreseen  by  any  natural  means.  The  return  of  a 


164  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 

departed  people  was  against  all  historical  analo- 
gies, as  not  only  the  case  of  the  ten  tribes  showed, 
but  the  existing  usage,  on  which  recent  discov- 
eries have  thrown  so  much  light,  of  occupying 
such  conquered  lands  by  an  exchange  of  peoples, 
that  admitted  usually  of  no  succeeding  break  or 
disturbance.  Now  the  utterance  of  Jeremiah 
was  fulfilled  by  the  edict  of  Cyrus,  B.  C.  536,  a 
fact  which  is  not  contested;  and  all  that  is  re- 
quired is  to  suppose  that  Jeremiah,  instead  of 
counting  from  the  last  siege  and  captivity  (B.  C. 
588),  counts  from  the  first  (B.  C.  606),  as  captiv- 
ity then  really  began.  It  is  not  desirable  to  lay 
undue  stress  on  this  incident,  however  remarka- 
ble; and  its  chief  weight  lies  in  bringing  into 
relief  the  pre-intimations  of  another  and  more 
terrible  captivity  and  dispersion,  from  which 
there  has  been  as  yet  no  return.  Without  bring- 
ing in  here  utterances  in  the  Gospels,  there  is  in 
the  Old  Testament  alone  quite  enough  to  point 
forward  to  the  present  captivity  and  dispersion  of 
the  Jewish  people.  The  leading  passages  are 
Leviticus  26  and  Deuteronomy  28,  and  these  if 
read  over  to  any  number  of  dispassionate  hearers, 
who  should  then  be  asked  whether  they  applied 
better  to  Israel  in  Babylon  or  to  Israel  scattered 
as  it  has  long  been  throughout  the  world,  would 
suggest  only  one  interpretation.  There  is  no 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.    165 

word  more  prophetic  in  all  history  than  this  : 
"Thou  shalt  become  an  astonishment,  a  proverb, 
and  a  by-word  among  all  nations,  whither  the 
Ivord  shall  lead  thee."  Dent.  28:37. 

The  marvel  is  increased  by  the  sense  of  long- 
continued  endurance  which  these  oracles  involve, 
and  also  of  adherence  to  their  own  religion,  for 
though  it  is  foretold  that  they  should  serve  gods 
of  wood  and  stone,  which  has  been  abundantly 
fulfilled  in  their  enforced  conformities  to  idolatry 
or  superstitions  forbidden  by  their  strict  ritual,  it 
is  evidently  taken  for  granted  that  they  should 
still  be  a  nation  continuous  in  their  old  profes- 
sion, and  should  at  length  by  repentance  return 
to  favor  with  their  fathers'  God.  All  through 
the  writings  of  the  prophets  a  wider  and  longer 
dispersion  seems  to  be  contemplated  than  was 
fulfilled  in  Babylon,  and  a  sorer  trial  of  national 
vitality ;  and  thus  only  a  promise  like  that  in 
Amos  9:9  acquires  significance:  u  For,  lo,  I  will 
command,  and  I  will  sift  the  house  of  Israel  among 
all  nations,  like  as  corn  is  sifted  in  a  sieve,  yet 
shall  not  the  least  grain  fall  upon  the  earth." 

The  centrifugal  force  of  world-wide  disper- 
sion, with  the  centripetal  of  national  cohesion, 
could  not  have  been  more  distinctly  expressed. 
It  is  not  the  calamity  of  national  downfall,  of 
expatriation  and  wandering  to  the  ends  of  the 


1 66  PRESENT  STATE   OF  THE 

earth,  of  proscription  and  outrage  such  as  may 
well  make  Christians  blush,  even  when  it  still 
breaks  out  in  our  own  century;  it  is  not  even  the 
tragic  cause,  as  Christians  believe,  of  this  un- 
matched disaster,  and  which  weighs  like  a  doom 
not  finally  exhausted.  It  is  the  power  of  resist- 
ance— the  invincible  reaction  against  all  forces  of 
change  or  dissolution,  the  stubborn  identity  with 
his  fathers — which  from  the  heights  of  modern 
commerce  or  the  fair  equality  of  intellectual  and 
political  conflict,  as  from  the  depression  of  other 
days,  makes  the  Jew  still  retire  into  solitude  to 
nurse  a  sad  memory  or  a  hope  yet  unfulfilled. 
Were  the  Jews  converted,  and  were  Palestine  re- 
stored to  them,  would  unbelief  be  able  to  hold  its 
own  ?  What  would  unbelief  have  said  had  they 
been  converted  as  easily  as  the  Franks  or  the 
Saxons  ?  or  had  Palestine  been  for  long  centuries 
the  peaceful  seat  of  an  unconverted  Hebrew  peo- 
ple to  whom  the  Roman  conquest  had  been  noth- 
ing more  than  the  exile  in  Babylon  ?  We  should 
then  have  heard  enough  of  the  argument  from 
prophecy  on  the  other  side,  and  should  have  had 
reason  to  fear,  as  we  have  not  now,  for  the  truth 
and  the  success  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

2.  With  respect  to  the  second  chief  point  bear- 
ing on  the  Jews — the  alleged  prophecies  by  Jesus 
of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  as  preserved  m 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT   FROM   PROPHECY.  167 

the  first  three  Gospels — it  must  indeed  be  frankly 
granted  that  we  have  not  the  unanimous  accord- 
ance by  critics  of  every  school,  Christian  and  non- 
Christian,  as  to  the  existence  of  these  Gospels  pre- 
vious to  the  year  (A.  D.  70)  when  Jerusalem  was 
taken.  But  we  have  what  may  be  called  a  great 
revolution  in  criticism  going  on  from  the  days  of 
Strauss,  who  would  not  allow  that  we  had  clear 
evidence  of  the  existence  of  any  of  the  synoptists 
till  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  down  to  our 
own  time,  when  leaders  of  negative  opinion  bring 
up  at  least  one  of  the  Gospels  before  the  Jewish 
catastrophe.  Thus  Hilgenfeld  brings  up  Mat- 
thew, in  its  supposed  Hebrew  form,  and  Keim  in 
its  Greek;  while  HiUig  before  them  had  done 
the  same  for  Mark.  A  critic  so  thoroughly  un- 
fettered by  tradition — though  not  negative— as 
Bernhard  Weiss,  places  Mark  in  69;  yet  one  can 
easily  see  how  hard  it  is,  even  for  great  scholars 
who  disbelieve  in  the  supernatural,  to  grant  the 
earlier  date,  since  a  real  prophecy  springs  at  once 
into  view.  The  conduct  of  Strauss  here  presents 
one  of  his  remarkable  vacillations.  Though  anx- 
ious to  place  Matthew  so  late,  he  is  constrained 
in  his  first  editions  to  grant  that  Jesus  may  have 
uttered  the  words  ascribed  to  him,  drawn  from 
Jewish  tradition,  as  to  some  overthrow  of  the 
temple,  and  helped  perhaps  by  Daniel  9:26,  27. 


1 68  PRESENT   STATE   OF  THE 

He  argues  against  their  being  put  into  his  mouth 
after  the  event,  for  then  Matthew  would  not  have 
added  (24:29)  that  the  speaker  announced  himself 
as  coming  "immediately"  in  the  clouds:  since 
this  the  event  had  falsified.  On  reflection  Strauss 
seems  to  have  thought  that  even  this  was  a  less 
difficulty  than  to  grant  the  reality  of  the  utter- 
ance, which  made  Jesus  and  Daniel  too  like 
prophets  and  Matthew  too  like  an  early  histo- 
rian. Hence,  in  his  new  "L,ife  of  Jesus,"  he 
comes  down  to  the  grosser  theory  of  a  prophecy 
so  minute  and  elaborate  being  an  ex  post  facto  cre- 
ation. No  other  scheme  remains,  unless  we  hold 
with  Renan  that  Jesus,  speaking  of  the  temple 
buildings,  "divined  that  they  would  have  a  short 
duration, ' '  *  and  at  the  same  time  that  such  words 
were  "lent"  to  him  by  the  evangelists. 

But  if  we  must  fall  back  on  prophecy  after 
the  event,  and  prophecy  so  extended,  so  terrible 
in  its  details,  so  startlingly  coincident  in  its  most 
awful  features,  as  Strauss  grants,  with  Joseph  us 
and  contemporary  history,  then  what  are  we  to 
think  of  the  honesty  or  intelligence  of  the  evan- 
gelists who  could  put  all  this  into  the  mouth  of 
Christ?  Macaulay  wrote  the  "Prophecy  of 
Capys,"  but  he  only  put  it  into  his  "Lays  of 
Ancient  Rome,"  and  not  into  a  Roman  history; 
*  "Vie  de  Je"sus,"  p.  211,  and  p.  273,  note. 


CHRISTIAN  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.  169 

so  that  the  Gospels  sink  into  lays,  if  not  into 
frauds.  This  is  opposed  to  the  whole  evidence 
of  their  historic  character,  and  also  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  very  passages  in  question  they  go  far 
beyond  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  to  its  long-con- 
tinued desolation  and  treading  down  by  the 
Gentiles,  which  could  not  then  be  suggested  by 
the  event.  Unquestionably  Christ  elsewhere  an- 
ticipates a  longer  career  for  the'  victories  and 
trials  of  his  gospel ;  and  in  these  very  oracles  the 
so-called  "times  of  the  Gentiles,"  which  had  to 
be  "fulfilled,"  cannot  be  limited  to  one  genera- 
tion, and  that  the  generation  which  (as  in  Matt. 
16:28;  lyuke  21:35)  had  enjoyed  his  own  pres- 
ence. 

IV. 

The  fourth  and  last  head  of  prophecy  is  that 
bearing  upon  the  other  nations  of  the  world. 
The  mere  predictive  aspect  of  these  manifold  no- 
tices is  not  that  which  is  chiefly  regarded.  The 
main  design  is  to  show  that  the  Gentiles  are  also 
amenable  to  moral  government,  with  its  laws  and 
retributions,  and  that  a  place  is  preparing  for 
them  in  the  Messianic  kingdom,  which  could 
only  be  theirs  through  the  downfall  of  pride  and 
the  turning  from  idolatry.  Some  specimens  only 
of  prediction  from  this  wide  field  are  selected.  If 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 

prophecy  has  here  failed  to  predict,  it  is  the  most 
splendid  failure  in  all  history. 

To  begin  with  the  notice  of  Ishmael  in  Gen. 
16:12:  "And  he  will  be  a  wild  man  [literally,  a 
man  like  the  wild  ass  of  the  desert]  :  his  hand 
will  be  against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand 
against  him:  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the  presence 
of  all  his  brethren."  No  picture  could  be  more 
complete  of  the  wild  liberty  and  defiant,  untame- 
able  independence  of  the  Arab  people  to  this  day. 
Nor  will  their  descent  from  Abraham's  son  be 
denied,  which  is  their  own  cherished  belief, 
whatever  of  other  and  kindred  blood,  and  even  of 
alien,  may  have  mingled  with  theirs  to  form  the 
" great  nation"  predicted  in  Gen.  17:20,  and 
which  has  so  moulded  the  history  of  the  world. 
That  this  people  who  have  written  their  name, 
though  in  a  spurious  copy,  beside  Judaism  and 
Christianity  on  the  monotheistic  faith  of  the 
world,  should  have  such  a  notice  and  prefigura- 
tion  in  the  history  of  Abraham,  is  to  say  the  least 
singular;  and  while  predictions  of  great  non- 
Christian  writers  as  to  Mohammedanism  are  now 
being  falsified,  the  features  of  the  Arab  race  that 
framed  it,  and  left  even  their  weakness  upon  it, 
stand  in  the  Bible  as  sharp  as  ever. 

It  is  no  great  transition  to  pass  from  Ishmael 
to  Egypt,   linked   through  Hagar  with  Arabia, 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  I /I 

and  itself  coming  in  the  Old  Testament  as  early 
on  the  scene.  Very  little  of  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  or 
Ezekiel  bearing  on  Egypt  has  been  challenged, 
though  accounted  for  by  political  sagacity,  moral 
foreboding  founded  on  experience,  or  where  these 
fail,  remodelling  after  the  event.  The  unex- 
pected results  of  Assyrian  exploration,  even  more 
than  of  Egyptian,  have  confirmed  the  accuracy  of 
the  prophetic  record.  The  sagacity  of  Gesenius — 
rationalist  though  he  was — kept  him  from  con- 
testing the  conquest  of  Ashdod  by  Sargon,  Isa.  20, 
though  that  monarch  never  appears  outside  the 
Bible;  and  now  the  full  inscription,  involving 
also  the  connection  with  Egypt,  is  recovered.  So 
likewise  the  conquest  of  No  (Thebes)  in  Nahum 
3:8-10,  is  in  every  point  verified,  and  all  the 
perplexities  which  had  led  this  to  be  regarded  as 
an  interpolation  are  at  an  end.  *  These  verifica- 
tions also  support  a  fulfilment  of  Ezek.  29:8-12 
regarding  a  desolation  of  Egypt  by  Nebuchadnez- 
zar for  forty  years.  Though  we  have  as  yet  no 
mention  of  this,  the  humiliations  of  Egypt  by 
Assyria  in  the  two  foregoing  cases  at  so  much 
earlier  a  date  remove  the  difficulty,  and  lead  us 
to  appreciate  at  its  worth  the  remark  of  Mr.  F. 
W.  Newman,  ( '  Happily  the  grasp  of  the  Chal- 

*  Schrader,  "  Keilinschriften,"  pp.  398-9,  Second  Edition. 
For  "No  "(Thebes),  p.  450. 


172  PRESENT  STATE:  OF  THE 

dsean  was  more   limited   than   human   imagina- 
tion."* 

It  is  in  the  same  chapter  of  Esekiel  that  what 
is  here  called  his  "human  imagination"  enabled 
Esekiel  to  draw  so  wonderful  a  picture  of  the 
debasement  of  Egypt,  which  notwithstanding  the 
transient  splendors  of  the  Ptolemies,  remains  so 
true  to  this  day:  "It  shall  be  the  basest  of  the 
kingdoms;  neither  shall  it  exalt  itself  any  more 
above  the  nations:  for  I  will  diminish  them,  that 
they  shall  no  more  rule  over  the  nation."  Ezek. 
29:15.  In  connection  with  the  Ptolemies,  we 
have  the  series  in  Daniel  u  respecting  their  rela- 
tions as  kings  of  the  South  with  the  Syrian 
monarchs  as  kings  of  the  North,  which  Porphyry, 
the  greatest  antagonist  of  Christianity  in  the 
third  century,  found  so  accurate  that  he  could 
only  explain  it  as  written  after  the  event. 

There  are  notices  even  in  Hosea  of  the  Assy- 
rian captivity,  Hosea  10:6;  11:5;  and  the  great 
prophecies  of  Isaiah  respecting  the  deliverance  of 
Jerusalem  in  his  day  received,  as  all  admit,  re- 
markable accomplishment.  Even  Sennacherib 
on  the  Taylor  cylinder  does  not  claim  to  have 
taken  Jerusalem;  and  we  can  read  between  the 
lines  his  own  defeat.  The  final  downfall  of 
Nineveh  is  wonderfully  foreshadowed  in  Nahum 
*  "  Hebrew  Monarchy,"  p.  326. 


CHRISTIAN    ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  173 

3,  where  he  compares  it  to  the  capture  of  Thebes, 
indicating  the  action  of  fire,  which  all  the  Nine- 
vite  remains  so  illustrate. 

Even  more  distinct  as  to  a  final  desolation  is 
Zeph.  2: 15:  "This  is  the  rejoicing  city  that  dwelt 
carelessly,  that  said  in  her  heart,  I  am,  and 
there  is  none  besides  me:  how  is  she  become  a 
desolation,  a  place  for  beasts  to  lie  down  in ! 
every  one  that  passeth  by  her  shall  hiss  and  wag 
his  hand."  The  dreary  solitude  of  the  mounds 
from  which  such  precious  treasures  have  been 
dug  could  not  have  been  more  terribly  expressed. 
Yet  these  words  of  Nahum  were  written  about 
B.  C.  660,  when  the  reign  of  Asur-bani-pal  was  at 
its  zenith;  and  those  of  Zephaniah,  who  is  gener- 
ally placed  some  thirty  years  later,  could  not 
possibly  be  suggested  by  any  long-continued 
overthrow. 

Of  the  references  to  Babylon  in  the  prophets, 
it  is  necessary  to  select  only  those  bearing  on  its 
downfall  and  ruin.  Even  Gesenius  allows  here  a 
natural  meaning,*  but  as  he  honestly  admits 
that  he  cannot  believe  in  an  Isaiah  writing  this 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half  before,  and  thus 
is  shut  up  to  a  second  Isaiah,  this  gives  no  solu- 
tion; for  how  could  this  Isaiah,  even  if  living  in 
Babylon,  know  beforehand  that  the  city  was  to 
*"Jessia,"3:33;  3:88. 


174  PRESENT  STATE   OF  THE 

fall  or  what  was  to  be  the  manner  of  its  capture  ? 
Still  less  could  he  know  that  Cyrus  was  to  restore 
Jerusalem  its  temple?  Thus  we  come  back  to 
our  universal  remedy,  prophecy  after  the  event: 
and  yet  how  can  this  help  us  as  to  the  desolations 
of  Babylon,  continued  as  they  are  to  this  day  ? 
Gesenius  refuses  here,  as  generally,  the  more 
extreme  rationalistic  consequence  of  fictitious 
prophecy,  satisfying  himself  with  portents  on  the 
horizon;  but  what  horizon  in  the  sixth  century 
before  Christ  could  suggest  this?  and  ought  there 
not  to  be  a  third  Isaiah  (almost  like  the  "  wander- 
ing Jew")  who  may  receive  the  fatherhood  of  it 
many  centuries  later  ?  Mr.  Newman  grants  that, 
this  is  one  of  a  series  of  prophecies  against  Baby- 
lon which  have  received  either  a  most  accurate 
or  a  very  plausible  fulfilment.*  He  seeks,  how- 
ever, to  weaken  the  argument  by  saying  that  c '  it 
is  absurd  to  represent  the  emptiness  of  modern 
Babylon  as  a  punishment  for  the  pride  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar." This,  however,  is  a  new  style  of 
theology,  unless  we  hold  that  all  sin  is  punished 
only  in  those  who  commit  it;  for  if  the  next  gen- 
eration may  suffer  from  a  Nebuchadnezzar  or  a 
Napoleon,  why  not  a  more  remote  one?  and  is 
sin  ever  exhausted  ? 

Another  set  of  monumental  prophecies  against 
*  "  Hebrew  Monarchy,"  p.  315. 


CHRISTIAN   ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  1 75 

pride,  luxury,  and  impiety  is  the  grand  series 
against  Tyre,  begun  in  Isaiah  and  ended  in  E^e- 
kiel.  The  doom  in  Ezekiel  26,  that  Tyre  should 
be  ua  place  to  spread  nets  upon,"  has,  as  travel- 
lers attest,  been  literally  fulfilled.  No  great 
emporium  has  ever  had  such  an  elegy;  and  its 
echo  survives  in  one  of  the  sublimest  chapters  of 
the  Apocalypse  (18).  As  an  example  of  prophe- 
cies said  to  have  failed  may  be  mentioned  Da- 
mascus, of  which  it  is  said  in  Isa.  17:1,  u  It  is 
taken  away  from  being  a  city,  and  it  shall  be  a 
ruinous  heap."  But  this  is  explicable  by  a  tem- 
porary desolation  such  as  was  actually  inflicted" 
by  Tiglath-pileser  on  the  Syrian  capital.  We 
should  have  known  what  to  think  had  prophecy 
attached  all  its  curses  to  cities  as  continuously 
flourishing  to  this  day  as  Damascus,  or  had  Nine- 
veh, Babylon,  and  Tyre  been  still,  in  spite  of  it, 
the  centres  of  worldly  greatness.  But  these  shafts 
do  not  fly  at  random.  Unlike  the  Homeric  arrows 
in  not  being  due  to  mere  anger,  their  clang  is 
terrible,  and  they'  fix  their  mark  in  decay  and 
ruin. 

In  closing  this  tract,  one  or  two  conclusions 
may  now  be  suggested  as  flowing  from  the  con- 
sideration of  this  evidence  in  all  its  parts. 

I.    These  alleged  prophecies  ivant  the  characteristics 


176  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 

of  sucJi  as  are  confessedly  human.  They  are  not 
trival  or  connected  with  ordinary  human  interests. 
They  are  not  mere  divinations,  designed  to  amuse, 
to  startle,  or  to  gratify  curious  prying  into  the  fu- 
ture. They  are  not  Delphic  or  studiously  ambig- 
uous; for  whatever  of  obscurity  be  in  them,  they 
bear  the  stamp  of  sincerity,  and  many  of  them 
are  cheeringly,  as  others  alarmingly,  straightfor- 
ward. They  are  not  connected  with  any  caste 
pursuing  class  interests;  for  though  the  prophets 
are  a  body  and  succession,  their  unity  is  chiefly  in 
suffering;  and  while  their  oracles  awake  to  bright 
hopes,  they  call  to  stern  duties. 

2.  Ordinary  explanations  art  inadequate.  ' '  Proph- 
ecy after  the  event"  is  so.  It  is  discredited  by  the 
best  rationalists.  The  act  or  habit  is  degrading 
to  men  who  are  still  looked  on  as  the  moral  in- 
structors of  the  world.  Anything  like  it  would 
not  be  tolerated  in  the  journalist,  the  historian,  the 
ethical  teacher  of  modern  times,  and  only  in  the 
poet  with  understanding  of  his  license.  Nor  is  ' '  co- 
incidence," pure  and  simple,  an  adequate  cause. 
This  has  been  seen  to  be  so  frequent,  so  startling, 
so  like  to  design,  that  the  argument  from  design 
applies;  and  design  here  involves  knowledge  more 
than  mortal.  Nor,  once  more,  can  ' '  sagacious 
forecast  of  moral  order"  suffice.  This  is  the  most 
respectable  solution  short  of  inspiration.  But  it 


CHRISTIAN    ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY.  177 

quite  breaks  down.  What  brooding  on  moral 
order  could  attain  to  such  prophetic  results?  How 
could  Abraham  thus  know  that  his  call  would 
bless  all  nations,  or  David  that  the  Messiah  should 
spring  from  him,  or  the  prophets  that  particular 
kingdoms  and  cities  should  be  destroyed,  or  Christ 
that  his  religion  should  fail  with  the  Jews  and 
succeed  with  the  Gentiles?  The  evidence  must 
be  taken  in  detail;  and  when  it  is  seen  how  often 
the  sense  of  insufficiency  returns,  this  is  the  mark 
of  a  solution  radically  weak  and  abortive. 

3.  The  Christian  view  of  prophecy  not  only  ac- 
counts for  the  individual  facts,  but  for  the  ^vJlole. 
Prophecy  is  systematic,  progressive,  and  all-in- 
clusive. The  theory  of  a  revelation  of  redemp- 
tion accounts  for  these  features.  Christ  is  then 
the  centre,  and  hence  all  is  connected  in  him; 
and  at  the  same  time  the  Messianic  part  of  revela- 
tion is  largest,  most  important,  most  like  the 
heart  in  the  economy  of  the  whole.  This  ac- 
counts also  for  the  progress  that  we  have  seen,  a 
progress  in  all  directions  and  towards  all  issues, 
but  all  conditioned  by  the  approach  of  Christ  and 
by  the  fulness  of  the  disclosure  as  to  his  person 
and  work  and  its  consequences.  And  this  ac- 
counts for  the  all-inclusive  character  of  the  pre- 
dictions. The  Gentile  future  must  stand  in  the 

light  of  the  Jewish  past  and  be  indebted  to  it. 

12 


1 73  CHRISTIAN    ARGUMENT   FROM    PROPHECY. 

The  Jewish  unbelief  must  serve  as  a  foil  to  the 
Gentile  faith,  and  be  at  length  reconciled  to  it 
and  one  with  it.  The  world's  kingdoms  must  go 
through  their  crises  of  trial  and  judgment,  to  pre- 
pare the  world  as  a  whole  for  the  Heavenly  King. 
Thus,  with  prophecy,  there  is  a  Redeemer,  and 
with  Him  a  philosophy  of  history  leading  upwards; 
without  prophecy,  no  redemption,  but  law  and 
sin  fastened  down  by  it,  and  any  streaks  in  the 
darkness  like  a  prophetic  glimmer  due  to  no  ri- 
sing orb,  but  meteoric,  and  born  of  chaos  or  night. 
Ought  not  the  Christian  then  to  give  heed  to  this 
"sure  word,"  which  is  attested,  as  it  is  created, 
by  a  power  above  nature  just  where  it  needs  to  be? 
and  may  he  not  hope  as  he  prays  that  to  others 
also  this  day  may  dawn  and  this  day-star  arise  ? 


THE    ORIGIN 


OF  THE 


HEBREW  RELIGION, 

AN  INQUIRY  AND  AN  ARGUMENT. 

BY 

EUSTACE  R.  CONDER,  D.D. 


ARGUMENT  OF  THE  TRACT. 


WHAT  rational  explanation  can  be  given  of  the  religion 
of  Ancient  Israel  ?  Characteristic  features  of  the  religion  of 
the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  i.  Alliance  of  RELIGION  with 
HISTORY.  2.  Organic  UNITY.  3.  DEVELOPMENT.  Critical 
objections.  Evidence  against  authenticity  of  the  books,  nega- 
tive; in  favor,  positive. 

I.  Bible  starts  not   with  dogma,  but  HISTORY.     Yet  its 
whole  purpose  religious:  a  history,  not  of  human  affairs  with 
supernatural  episodes,  but  of  God's  dealings  with  mankind. 
Peculiarity  of  the  history:   annals  of  one  family  line  from 
Adam  to  Christ.     Distinguish  between  " substantial  truth" 
and  infallibility  or  inspiration.     Literary  merit  of  Genesis. 
View  of  human  life.      Faith,  prayer,  providence.     Unique 
character  of  Hebrew  national  life.     Contrast  between  Gene- 
sis and  subsequent  books  of  Moses,     i.  MIRACLES.    Origin 
of  religion.     Professor  Max  Miiller's  view.    Modern  repug- 
nance to  miracles.     Hence  rejection  of  Mosaic  authorship  of 
Pentateuch.     Science  and  miracle.    Another  form  of  objec- 
tion.    Adequate  purpose  of  miracles  recorded  by  Moses. 
2.  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIAL,  including   (a)  a  Sanctuary;  (d) 

^Sacrifice;  (c]  Priesthood.  ^  (a)  The  Tabernacle;  symbol  of 
"Divine  Presence,  (b]  Priesthood;  contrast  with  that  of 
Egypt,  (c)  Sacrifices.  Ewald's  erroneous  assertion.  Con- 
trast with  pagan  rites.  Mutual  connection  of  the  religion 
and  the  history.  Enormous  improbability  involved  in  hy- 
potheses of  modern  destructive  criticism. 

II.  UNITY  and  DEVELOPMENT.    Nature  of  unity  discover- 
able in  Bible.     Must  have  adequate  cause.     Fundamental 
religious  idea:  Being  and  Character  of  God.    Creation.    Man 
in  moral  relation  to  his  Maker.     Divine  authority  and  mer- 
cy.   Contrast  with  heathen  literature.     Divine  attributes  of 
"RIGHTEOUSNESS"  and   "HOLINESS."    Transference  of  this 
latter  idea  to  God.     Hebrew  idea  of  holiness  not  ceremonial 
but  moral.     Hebrew  view  of  SIN.     Human  interest  of  Old 
Testament  Scriptures;  yet  pervaded  with  underlying  thought 
of  man's  sin  and  sinfulness.     Hebrew  terms.     Conception  of 
sin  moral,  not  ceremonial.    Central  idea  which  gives  unity 
to  religious  teaching  of  Old  Testament.     Purity.     Tender- 
ness.   Needless  to  discuss  the  view  which  ranks  the  Hebrew 
with  pagan  religions,  since  our  whole    inquiry   refutes  it. 
Science  is  bound  to  study  and  give  account  of  phenomena  so 
abundant  and  significant.    Absurdity  of  hypothesis  that  the 
national  genius  of  the  Hebrews  produced  their  national  reli- 
gion.   The  crucial  test.    The  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION. 


THE 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION 

UN  INQUIRY  AND  AN  ARGUMENT, 


WHAT  rational  explanation,  satisfactory  to  a 
thoughtful  and  candid  mind,  can  be  given  of  the 
religion  of  ancient  Israel  as  exhibited  in  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures?  Are  its  existence  and 
character  explicable  by  the  same  causes  which 
have  produced  the  other  ancient  religions  of  the 
world  ?  We  may  here  leave  out  of  view  the  ques- 
tion whether  in  fact  those  religions  sprang  simply 
from  the  working  of  the  human  mind,  or  had  a 
common  root  in  primeval  revelation.  Let  us  take 
them  as  we  find  them  in  the  most  ancient  records. 
Would  it  be  a  rational  theory  of  the  religion  of 
ancient  Israel  to  say  that  it  originally  resembled 
the  religions  of  Assyria  and  Egypt,  Phoenicia  and 
Greece,  but  that  these  religions  were  somehow  ar- 
rested in  their  development,  whereas  the  religion 
of  Israel  reached  by  gradual  development  that 


1 82  THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE    HEBREW   RELIGION. 

form  and  force  which  place  it  in  such  stern  but 
splendid  contrast  with  the  other  faiths  of  man- 
kind? If  so,  what  was  the  secret  of  this  unique 
development  ?  How  came  it  to  pass  that  a  small 
and  despised  nation,  destitute  of  philosophy  and 
of  art,  whose  literature  outside  its  sacred  books 
has  left  no  mark  of  human  thought,  whose  history 
was  a  series  of  failures,  culminating  in  the  most 
tremendous  overthrow  that  ever  crushed  and  broke 
up  a  people,  should  have  succeeded,  where  India, 
China,  Egypt,  Greece,  Rome,  all  failed  ?  How  is 
it  that  Judaea  has  produced  in  Christianity,  which 
claims  to  be  simply  the  perfect  flower  and  ripe 
fruit  of  Judaism,  the  one  religion  which  has  both 
the  ambition  and  the  prospect  of  conquering  the 
world  and  furnishing  the  supreme  bond  of  unity 
for  the  human  race  ? 

These  are  questions  which  claim  the  attention 
of  the  thoughtful  skeptic  as  much  as  of  the  Chris- 
tian believer.  He  cannot  afford  to  put  them 
lightly  aside,  for  doubt  ceases  to  be  "  honest 
doubt n  if  it  trifles  with  evidence.  The  only 
skeptic  who  merits  either  respect  or  sympathy  is 
he  whose  ' '  open  eyes  desire  the  truth. ' ' 

Whatever  view  we  adopt  of  the  origin  or  of 
the  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  we 
must  admit  that  they  hold  a  unique  place  in  lit- 
erature. The  translation  into  English,  by  emi- 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   THE   HEBREW   RELIGION.  183 

nent  scholars,  of  "the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East" 
enables  the  English  reader  to  compare  and  con- 
trast the  Hebrew  Scriptures  with  all  other  sacred 
writings  in  their  structure  and  contents,  as  well 
as  in  their  influence  on  human  thought  and  his- 
tory. 

Three  characteristic  features  may  be  named  as 
deserving  special   consideration:   the  manner  in 
which  the   Hebrew  Scriptures   connect  religion^ 
with  history;   their  organic  unity, -doctrinal  and h 
historical;   and  their  progressive  development  off) 
religious  teaching.* 

uWhat  do  you  mean,"  it  may  be  asked,  uby 
speaking  of  unity  and  development  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament Scriptures  ?  Do  you  mean  to  assume  the 
authenticity  of  the  several  books,  and  that  their 
assigned  dates  correspond  with  the  real  order  in 
which  they  were  produced  ?  These  are  the  very 
points  on  which  *  the  most  advanced  modern 
criticism '  claims  to  have  passed  its  sentence  and 
overset  the  faith  of  ages."  Of  course.  But  it 
will  not  do  for  modern  criticism,  while  denying 
the  infallibility  of  the  Bible,  to  claim  infallibility 
for  its  own  conclusions.  They  too  must  be  criti- 
cised. No  doubt  there  are  points  of  minute 

*  Other  characteristics  are  treated  with  consummate  force 
and  beauty  in  Henry  Rogers'  Lectures  on  "  The  Superhuman 
Origin  of  the  Bible." 


1 84  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

scholarship  in  Hebrew  as  in  other  ancient  lan- 
guages where  the  judgment  of  an  expert  is  en- 
titled to  very  great  respect.  Yet  even  here,  when 
the  point  is  such  as  can  be  made  plain  to  an  Eng- 
lish reader,  common  sense  may  put  in  a  claim  to 
a  vote.  But  such  capital  questions  as  whether 
the  Pentateuch  was  really  written  by  Moses,  or  is 
a  tissue  of  forgeries  and  fragments  compiled  a 

/  thousand  years  after  his  death,  do  not  hang  on 
such  elaborate,  niceties.  They  must  be  weighed 
in  bigger  scales  than  those  in  which  critics  weigh 
vowel  points  and  various  readings.  They  turn 
on  broad  and  solid  considerations,  as  to  which 
every  thoughtful  and  educated  English  reader 
may  qualify  himself  to  form  a  competent  judg- 
ment. 

The  account  these  ancient  documents  give  of 
themselves  has  at  all  events  a  presumption  in  its 
favor  until  evidence  be  produced  to  prove  them 
unauthentic  or  spurious.  Positive  evidence 
against  them  there  is  none,  and  in  the  nature  of 
the  case  can  be  none,  unless  a  rival  history  of 
equal  or  greater  antiquity  could  be  discovered. 
The  arguments  against  their  veracity  and  anti- 

1  quity  are  all  indirect,  of  the  nature  of  objections. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  evidence  in  favor  of  the 
immemorial  tradition  of  the  Hebrew  nation  as  to 
their  authorship  is  positive,  and  of  immense 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   HEBREW  RELIGION.  185 

value — consisting  in  the  structure  and  the  con- 
tents of  the  books  themselves.  Add  to  this  the 
impossibility  of  giving  any  satisfactory  account 
of  them  if  they  be  forgeries. 

The  candid  skeptic  may  say  that,  having 
weighed  fairly  both  the  evidence  and  the  objec- 
tions, the  latter  appear  to  him  to  preponderate. 
But  he  must  not  treat  the  evidence  as  non-exis- 
tent. And  it  is  a  sound  rule  of  both  common 
sense  and  criticism  that  when  positive  evidence 
is  conclusive,  even  insoluble  difficulties  cannot 
overthrow  it. 

Two  other  considerations  deserve  to  be  borne 
in  mind.  First,  that  supposing  the  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  be  genuine,  any  dislocation  of 
their  real  historical  order  (such  as  the  conjecture 
that  portions  of  the  Pentateuch  were  written  by 
Kzekiel  or  by  Ezra)  must  altogether  confuse  and 
disguise  their  religious  teaching.  Secondly,  that 
if  these  books,  taken  in  their  traditional  order, 
exhibit  a  unity  and  progress  which  disappear  on 
any  other  arrangement,  a  powerful  argument  will 
be  supplied  that  the  traditional  order  is  the  true 
order.  If  the  pieces  of  a  model  fitted  in  one  order 
produce  a  symmetrical  building,  and  in  any  other 
arrangement  a  shapeless  heap,  no  sane  mind 
doubts  which  of  these  shows  the  design  with 
which  they  were  fashioned.  . 


1 86  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

Guided  by  these  plain  principles,  let  us  ex- 
amine those  characteristics  of  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures above  indicated:  viz.,  the  VITAL  CONNEC- 
TION they  present  between  RELIGION  AND  HIS- 
TORY; the  unity  of  thought,  sentiment,  and  prac- 
tical aim  underlying  their  great  variety  of  form ; 
and  the  PROGRESSIVE  DEVELOPMENT  of  religious 
doctrine  which  they  display — not  final,  but  point- 
ing forward  to  a  fuller  unfolding. 

I. 

The  Bible  begins  not  with  dogma,  but  with 
history.  It  says  nothing  of  the  being  and  attri- 
butes of  God,  but  shows  the  Creator  at  work :  u  In 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth. "  It  says  nothing  of  religion,  but  shows 
the  ancestors  of  mankind  created  in  the  image  of 
God,  and  placed  at  the  outset  in  moral  relations 
of  obedience  and  responsibility  to  their  Creator. 
This  is  its  method  throughout.  It  gives  us  no 
religious  teaching  apart  from  particular  persons, 
places,  and  events.  Even  the  law  of  the  Ten 
Commandments,  the  most  perfect  summary  of 
moral  and  religious  duty  extant  before  Chris- 
tianity, is  recorded  as  matter  of  historical  fact — 
uttered  by  a  divine  Voice  to  the  assembled  people 
of  Israel,  and  afterwards  graven  on  stone  tablets 
4 'with  the  finger  of  God."  Yet  it  is  impossible 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.   187 

thoughtfully  to  study  these  writings  without  per- 
ceiving that  their  whole  aim  and  meaning  is  re- 
ligious. The  story  they  tell  is  not  that  of  human 
affairs,  with  a  mingling  of  the  supernatural,  but 
of  God's  dealings  with  men.  Even  those  painful 
episodes  which  a  historian  anxious  for  the  honor 
of  his  race  would  gladly  have  omitted,  are  found 
on  this  view  to  have  their  place  and  meaning. 

Another  peculiar  feature  of  the  early  portion 
of  these  records  is  that  they  take  the  form  of  fam- 
ily annals.  In  Genesis  4  a  fragment  is  given, 
tracing  the  line  of  primogeniture  for  six  genera- 
tions. But  in  chap.  5  a  new  departure  is  indica- 
ted by  the  title  "the  book  of  the  generations  of 
Adam;"  and  the  line  is  traced  from  Seth  to 
Noah.  In  chap.  10  we  have  "the  generations 
of  the  sons  of  Noah,"  the  family  tree  of  nations. 
In  chap,  ii  "the  generations  (or  genealogic  rec- 
ord) of  Shem"  traces  the  line  to  Abraham.  It 
has  often  been  erroneously  supposed  that  this  is  a 
list  of  eldest  sons.  Abraham  himself,  like  Shem, 
was  a  younger  son.  Abraham's  line  divides  in  the 
twin  sons  of  Isaac;  but  it  is  not  till  after  the  death 
of  Isaac  that  the  family  records  take  a  new  start, 
chap.  36  giving  "the  generations  of  Esau,  who 
is  Edom,"*  and  chap.  37  introducing  the  history 

*  The  discussions  which  have  been  raised  on  vers.  31,  etc., 
do  not  concern  us  here.    See,  e.  g.,  the  "  Speaker's 


UNIVERSITY 


1 88  THE;  ORIGIN  OK  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

of  Joseph  with  the  words  u  These  are  the  genera- 
tions of  Jacob."  After  this  there  is  no  further 
break.  The  family  of  Jacob  gradually  develops 
into  the  twelve  tribes  which  constituted  the  na- 
tion of  the  "B'ney  Israel,"  children  of  Israel. 
What  makes  this  genealogical  character  of  Old 
Testament  history  the  more  noteworthy  is  that  in 
the  New  Testament  Scriptures  it  is  taken  as  the 
starting-point  of  Christianity.  In  the  first  and 
third  Gospels  the  line  of  Abraham,  Israel,  Judah, 
David  is  traced  down  to  Him  whom  St.  Paul  calls 
u  the  second  Adam."  With  him  the  record  stops, 
never  to  interest  mankind  further. 

Along  this  single  line  of  human  life,  claiming 
to  connect  the  life  of  the  first  human  being  with 
the  times  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  followed  by  the  Christian  Scriptures, 
represent  an  equally  continuous  chain  of  divine 
manifestation  and  divine  dealing  as  having  been 
carried  on,  assuming  for  some  fifteen  centuries  a 
national  form,  yet  from  first  to  last  designed  for 
the  benefit  of  all  nations  of  mankind. 

Nothing  parallel  to  this  is  to  be  discovered  in 
the  whole  domain  of  human  literature  or  of  hu- 

tary  "  on  this  chapter.  Supposing  it  can  be  shown  that  these 
verses  were  added  by  a  later  pen,  this  no  more  affects  the  in- 
tegrity and  authenticity  of  Genesis  than  our  modern  practice 
of  making  additions  to  ancient  books  in  the  form  of  notes  af- 
fects the  authority  of  such  books. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  REUGION.  189 

man  religion  beside.  It  must  have  a  meaning 
and  an  explanation.  And  the  more  deeply  it  is 
studied  the  more  difficult  I  believe  it  will  be 
found  to  invent  any  explanation  other  than  the 
reality  of  the  divine  manifestation  and  the  sub- 
stantial truth  of  the  history.  If  Moses  was  the 
writer  of  Genesis,  we  can  well  understand  how  he 
may  have  been  able  to  collect  and  arrange  the 
sacred  traditions  of  his  forefathers,  together  with 
those  which  may  have  been  preserved  in  the  fam- 
ily of  the  "priests  of  Midian,"  among  whom  he 
spent  forty  years  of  his  long  life.  But  if  Moses* 
authorship  be  denied,  and  the  Pentateuch  sup- 
posed a  compilation  of  late  date  by  various 
hands,  its  form,  style,  contents,  and  religious 
teaching  furnish  an  insoluble  problem. 

I  have  spoken  of  ' '  the  substantial  truth  of  the 
history,"  because  we  must  not  here  assume  any 
theory  of  inspiration  or  infallibility.  It  is  quite 
possible  to  believe  that  Moses  wrote  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  wrote  in  perfect  good  faith,  and  yet  to 
suppose  that  he  had  no  means  of  discriminating 
historic  fact  from  legendary  fiction  in  the  annals 
of  his  forefathers.  He  wrote,  it  may  be  argued, 
what  he  believed  to  be  true;  but  criticism  is  to 
be  applied  to  test  the  actual  truth  of  his  narra- 
tive. Take  for  example  the  account  of  the  crea- 
tion. To  some  readers  the  employment  of  the 


IQO  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

word  "day"  appears  so  irreconcilable  with  the 
facts  of  geology  as  hopelessly  to  shut  out  the  no- 
tion of  divine  inspiration.  To  others,  on  the 
contrary,  no  less  thoughtful  and  competent,  the 
general  agreement  of  that  marvellously  terse  rec- 
ord with  the  history  of  life  graven  in  the  rocks  is 
nothing  short  of  a  miracle  of  knowledge,  utterly 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  unaided  human  mind  in 
that  remote  age,  or,  indeed,  in  any  age  previous 
to  our  own. 

Again,  the  long  term  of  life  ascribed  to  the 
antediluvian  patriarchs,  and  to  their  descendants 
down  to  Abraham,  and  even  later,  appears  to 
some  critics  self-evidently  fabulous.  To  others 
the  present  brevity  of  human  life  and  the  rapid 
decay  of  the  bodily  organs  appear  perplexing  and 
mysterious;  and  it  seems  to  them  inherently  prob- 
able that  th.e  early  generations  of  mankind  nearer 
the  fountain  of  life  possessed  a  far  larger  share  of 
vital  power,  involving  a  capacity  no  longer  pos- 
sessed of  renewing  tissues  and  organs  during 
many  centuries. 

The  paradoxical  opinion  has  even  been  main- 
tained, with  great  ability  and  with  undoubted  sin- 
cerity, that  the  early  narratives  of  Genesis  are 
mythical  legends,  but  are  nevertheless  divinely 
inspired.  To  those  who  bow  with  unreserved 
faith  to  the  teaching  of  our  L,ord  and  his  apostles 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  IQI 

the  testimony  of  the  New  Testament  to  the  his- 
torical truth  of  those  narratives  seems  sufficient 
and  decisive.  But  at  whatever  judgment  the 
reader  arrives  on  these  and  the  like  points,  or 
even  if  he  holds  his  judgment  in  suspense,  the 
religious  teaching  of  Genesis — the  general  view 
of  divine  manifestation  to  man  and  dealing  with 
man — abides  the  same,  and  demands  to  be  con- 
sidered and  accounted  for. 

The  wonderful  simplicity  and  terseness  of  the 
book  of  Genesis  probably  conceal  from  the  multi- 
tude of  readers  its  transcendent  literary  merit. 
The  story  of  Joseph  is  perhaps  the  finest  example 
of  narrative  in  literature,  while  the  speech  of 
Judah  is  an  unsurpassed  model  of  natural  elo- 
quence. The  story  of  the  mission  of  Abraham's 
servant  to  Mesopotamia  is  equally  perfect  in  its 
way;  but  its  fulness  of  detail — the  scale  of  the 
narrative — has  no  parallel  in  Scripture.  Had 
the  Bible  narratives  in  general  been  given  on  a 
similar  scale  of  detail  the  bulk  of  the  Scriptures 
would  have  been  increased  many  fold. 

The  feature  of  Old  Testament  religion  we 
have  been  considering  is  not  peculiar  to  Genesis 
or  to  the  Pentateuch.  It  pervades  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  It  is  not  that  history  is  made  the  me- 
dium of  religious  instruction.  That  would  be  a 
most  narrow  and  mistaken  view  of  the  matter. 


I92THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

It  is  that  religion  is  shown  as  the  soul  of  history, 
the  supreme  reality  and  central  power  in  human 
affairs,  the  deepest  foundation  of  human  life. 
But  while  this  keynote  rings  loud  and  clear 
throughout  the  Bible,  it  is  struck  in  Genesis  with 
unsurpassed  boldness  and  truth.  God  is  shown 
as  the  ultimate  source  of  all  being,  preparing  the 
earth  from  the  -beginning  to  be  the  home  of  man. 
Man's  very  existence  is  traced  to  God's  purpose 
to  realize  his  own  likeness  in  human  nature. 
Man  is  shown  as  conversant  with  God  as  soon  as 
he  began  to  know  himself  and  the  world  around 
him.  The  foundations  'of  marriage,  property, 
labor,  moral  duty,  and  responsibility  are  all  laid 
in  God's  revealed  will  and  man's  conscious  rela- 
tion to  his  Maker.  Moral  evil,  or  sin,  is  repre- 
sented as  wilful  disobedience  to  the  known  will 
of  God.  The  tendency  to  evil  is  shown  to  be 
hereditary  as  well  as  personal,  and  teeming  with 
seeds  of  increase.  Human  life  is  regarded  as  a 
whole,  and  God  is  seen  as  the  Ruler  and  Judge 
of  mankind,  as  well  as  the  personal  Friend  and 
Saviour  of  every  one  who  fears  and  trusts  him. 
FAITH,  as  the  mainspring  and  sheet  anchor  of 
the  religious  life ;  PRAYER,  as  direct  personal 
converse  with  the  unseen  Father  of  spirits,  and 
as  actually  heard  and  answered  by  him  ;  and 
DIVINE  PROVIDENCE,  as  regulating  all  human 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  193 

affairs,  from  the  greatest  to  the  least,  are  so  ex- 
emplified in  these  ancient  Hebrew  annals  that 
the  stories  of  Abraham,  of  Jacob,  of  Joseph,  pos- 
sess an  nndecaying  charm  for  Christian  minds  of 
the  highest  spiritual  culture.  They  are  typical 
for  all  time.  No  example  of  after  ages  has  been 
able  to  cast  them  into  the  shade. 

The  "Pentateuch"  is  so  called  because,  from 
time  immemorial,  perhaps  by  the  author  himself, 
it  has  been  divided  into  five  sections  or  "books." 
But  there  is  no  break  of  continuity.  The  narra- 
tive passes  briefly  over  the  centuries,  at  first  of 
peaceful  prosperity,  then  of  bitter  adversity,  dur- 
ing which  Israel's  descendants  "increased  abun- 
dantly, and  multiplied,  and  waxed  exceeding 
mighty."  It  hastens  to  tell  the  story  of  the  de- 
liverance from  bondage,  and  of  the  creation  of  an 
organized  nation  out  of  the  twelve  clans  which 
claimed  Joseph  and  his  brothers  as  their  ances- 
tors. But  it  links  on  this  history  with  the  story 
of  Joseph  by  his  remarkable  request  concerning 
his  embalmed  remains;  which  request  we  are  as- 
sured was  reverently  obeyed  on  the  departure 
of  Israel  from  Egypt,  and  finally  fulfilled  in  the 
Promised  Land,  Exod.  13:19;  Josh.  24:32. 

With  the  narrative  of  the  Exodus,  the  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  conquest  of 
Canaan  is  interwoven  the  record  of  the  National 


194  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

Code  and  Constitution,  political,  religious,  moral 
and  social.  The  historic  reality  of  the  divine 
manifestation  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Israel  is 
assumed  as  the  necessary  starting-point  of  God's 
dealings  with  their  descendants.  His  promise  to 
Abraham  is  treated  as  a  "covenant,"  to  which 
divine  faithfulness  stands  irrevocably  pledged. 
But  a  new  starting-point  is  given  immediately 
after  the  deliverance  by  a  fresh  "covenant" 
granted  by  Jehovah  and  freely  accepted  by  the 
people.  "  Moses  went  up  unto  God,  and  the  Lord 
called  unto  him  out  of  the  mountain,  saying, 
Thus  shalt  thou  say  to  the  house  of  Jacob,  and 
tell  the  children  of  Israel:  '  Ye  have  seen  what  I 
did  unto  the  Egyptians,  and  how  I  bare  you  on 
eagles'  wings,  and  brought  you  unto  myself. 
Now,  therefore,  if  ye  will  obey  my  voice  indeed, 
and  keep  my  covenant,  then  ye  shall  be  a  pecu- 
liar treasure  unto  me  above  all  people:  for  all  the 
earth  is  mine;  and  ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  king- 
dom of  priests  and  a  holy  nation.'  .  .  .  And  Moses 
came  and  called  for  the  elders  of  the  people,  and 
laid  before  their  faces  all  these  words  which  the 
Lord  commanded  him.  And  all  the  people  an- 
swered together,  and  said,  'All  that  the  Lord  hath 
spoken  we  will  do.'  And  Moses  returned  the 
words  of  the  people  unto  the  Lord."  Bxod. 

19:3-8. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  IQ5 

* 

Such  a  record  has  no  parallel,  in  fact  or  fic- 
tion. Many  lawgivers  have  claimed  divine 
authority.  Many  sacred  books  have  been  ac- 
counted divinely  inspired.  Many  nations  have 
deemed  themselves  patronised  by  a  national  de- 
ity, and  favorites  of  heaven.  But  this  descrip- 
tion of  the  founding  of  a  nation  and  laying  the 
basis  of  national  legislation  by  a  solemn  contract 
of  sovereignty  and  obedience  between  the  Al- 
mighty Creator  and  the  representatives  of  the 
whole  nation,  is  absolutely  unique  in  its  sober 
majesty,  severe  literal  reality,  and  moral  gran- 
deur. 

On  the  basis  thus  laid  the  whole  fabric  of 
legislation  and  framework  of  national  life,  accord- 
ing to  the  books  of  Moses,  rested.  All  the  subse- 
quent history  proceeds  from  this  starting-point. 
The  religion  of  personal  faith,  prayer,  and  obedi- 
ence depicted  in  Genesis  is  never  lost  sight  of; 
but  it  is  overshadowed  by  the  religion  of  national 
faith,  public  worship,  and  obedience  to  the  law 
binding  on  the  nation.  The  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  the  subsequent  laws  given  by  Moses 
are  expressed  in  such  a  form  that  the  word 
"thou"  may  apply  equally  to  the  individual  Is- 
raelite or  to  the  nation.  Divine  providence  and 
government  are  illustrated  on  a  corresponding 
scale.  The  wanderings  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 


196  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

Jacob,  and  the  sufferings  and  glory  of  Joseph, 
illustrate  God's  care  and  control  of  personal  his- 
tory down  to  its  least  details.  Egypt,  the  Red 
Sea,  Sinai,  the  desert,  the  manna,  the  water  from 
the  rock,  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  teach  a  like 
lesson  in  regard  to  national  history,  on  a  scale 
never  equalled,  never  to  be  repeated. 

The  religious  teaching  of  the  remaining  four 
books  of  Moses  stands  therefore  in  vivid  contrast 
with  that  of  Genesis,  especially  in  two  of  their 
most  striking  features:  a  stupendous  series  of 
miracles,  and  an  elaborate  religious  ceremonial 
involving  a  hereditary  priesthood. 

i.  Two  unparalleled  miracles  are  recorded  in 
Genesis:  the  deluge  and  the  destruction  of  Sod- 
om and  its  neighbor  cities.  These  excepted, 
miracles  occupy  no  prominent  place,  save  in  the 
form  of  those  divine  communications,  by  voices, 
visions,  angelic  apparitions,  and  the  like,  which 
were  indispensable  in  the  absence  of  any  written 
revelation,  if  man  was  to  converse  with  his 
Maker  and  learn  his  will. 

The  origin,  not  simply  of  the  Hebrew  reli- 
gion, but  of  religion  itself  as  a  prominent  fact  of 
human  nature  and  history,  has  been  debated  as  a 
riddle  yet  needing  solution.  The  Bible  account  of 
the  origin  of  religion  is  that  man  began  his  jour- 
ney on  this  globe  not  as  a  deserted  orphan  turned 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

adrift  to  seek  God  as  best  he  could,  but  in  commun- 
ion with  the  Father  of  spirits.  God  talked  with 
him,  and  he  could  talk  with  God.  God  marked 
for  him  the  path  of  duty,  and  it  lay  in  his  choice  tc 
walk  in  it  or  to  wander  from  it.  If  men  ceased  to 
know  God,  it  was  by  their  own  neglect  and  sin; 
because,  as  St.  Paul  says,  "they  refused  to  have. 
God  in  their  knowledge."  Rom.  1:28,  R.  V. 

This  view  of  a  primeval  revelation  is  strongly 
combated,  even  by  writers  who  hold  that  religion 
is  natural  and  indispensable  to  man.  Professor 
Max  Miiller,  in  his  extremely  able  and  fascina- 
ting "Lectures  on  the  Origin  and  Science  of  Re- 
ligion," speaks  even  with  contempt  of  the  belief 
that  religion  originated  in  divine  revelation.  It 
is,  he  argues,  an  absurdity.  "When  man  has 
once  arrived  at  a  stage  of  thought  when  he  can 
call  anything,  be  it  one  or  many,  God,  he  has 
achieved  more  than  half  his  journey.  He  has 
found  the  predicate  God,  and  he  has  henceforth 
to  look  for  the  subjects  only  to  which  that  predi- 
cate is  truly  applicable.  What  we  want  to  know 
is,  how  man  first  arrived  at  the  concept  of  the 
divine,  and  out  of  what  elements  he  framed  it; 
afterwards  only  comes  the  question  how  he  was 
able  to  predicate  the  divine  of  this  or  that,  of 
the  one  or  of  the  many. ' ' 

By  parity  of  reasoning  it  ought  to  be  impossi- 


198  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

ble  for  a  child  to  know  its  mother  until  it  has 
"  found  the  predicate,"  or  u  framed  the  concept," 
"  mother."  Afterwards  only  ought  to  come  the 
question  to  whom  that  predicate  is  applicable,  and 
whether  he  has  many  mothers  or  only  one.  The 
fact,  as  everybody  knows,  is  the  other  way.  A 
predicate  implies  language.  A  concept  implies 
power  to  abstract  and  generalize;  it  is  a  gener- 
alized judgment,  or  group  or  series  of  judgments, 
applicable  in  virtue  of  a  common  name  to  several 
objects.  None  but  a  mother  fully  knows  all  that 
the  predicate  or  concept  "mother"  stands  for. 
But  long  before  the  cradled  child  can  perform 
any  such  intellectual  feats  as  abstraction  and 
generalization — not  only  before  he  can  talk,  but 
before  he  suspects  that  there  is  -such  a  thing  as 
speech,  he  is  perfectly  conscious  of  his  mother's 
presence  and  love.  Feeling  awakes  while  reason 
yet  slumbers,  and  opens  the  door  to  knowledge. 
The  infant  born  blind,  to  whom  its  mother  is  an 
invisible  presence,  acquires  the  same  emotions, 
the  same  certainty,  through  the  sensations  of 
hearing  and  touch.  The  nascent  intelligence 
instinctively  penetrates  behind  the  veil  of  sensa- 
tion into  the  world  of  spirit. 

Precisely  similar,  according  to  the  account  in 
Genesis,  was  the  method  by  which  the  eternal 
Father  of  spirits  revealed  himself  to  his  new-born 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.   IQ9 

offspring.  We  are  neither  warranted  nor  forbid- 
den by  any  express  statement  to  assume  any  vis- 
ible manifestation  of  divine  glory  to  our  first 
parents.  They  *  *  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
God."  They  were  sensible  of  an  awful,  com- 
manding but  lovirig  and  protecting  presence. 
They  conversed  with  their  Maker.  .Thought 
and  speech  are  represented  as  already  called  into 
exercise,  in  the  naming  of  the  lower  creatures, 
before  man  found  ua  help  meet  for  him,"  a  com- 
panion spirit  akin  to  himself.  It  is  reasonable 
to  think  that  the  current  of  intellectual,  moral, 
and  spiritual  life,  as  well  as  physical,  flowed 
strong  so  near  to  the  fountain-head.  The  task 
of  acquiring  language,  which  toilsomely  occupies 
two  or  three  years  or  more  of  infancy,  may  have 
been  condensed  into  a  few  weeks,  days,  or  hours. 
Our  parents  could  already  understand  the  lan- 
guage of  command,  promise,  and  warning  when 
they  were  placed  under  law  and  their  welfare 
made  dependent  on  their  obedience. 

Compared  with  recent  hypotheses  of  the  slow 
and  painful  ascent  of  man  from  irrational,  speech- 
less, lawless,  godless,  apehood,  the  Bible  account 
has  at  all  events  the  advantage  of  dignity,  beauty, 
intelligibleness,  and  analogy  with  the  known 
facts  of  human  experience. 

The  two  tremendous  miracles  of  destruction 


200  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

which  are  repeatedly  referred  to  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament as  typical  examples  of  divine  judgment 
on  sin — the  deluge  and  the  overthrow  of  the 
cities  of  the  plain — stand  out  in  awful  and  vivid 
contrast  with  the  general  tenor  of  the  narrative 
in  Genesis.  These  excepted;  the  miracles  of  the 
deliverance  from  Egypt,  and  of  the  wilderness, 
are  as  unprecedented  in  their  colossal  greatness 
as  they  are  unique  in  character.  Modern  criti- 
cism finds  in  these  miracles  unquestionable  proof 
of  what  it  terms  the  "  unhistorical "  character  of 
the  narrative.  Repugnance  to  miracles  is  a 
marked  feature  of  our  age,  though  by  no  means 
peculiar  to  it.  The  so-called  scientific  argument 
against  miracles  is  in  substance  that  invented  by 
David  Hume  in  the  last  century.*  Stripped  of 
ingenious  rhetoric  it  amounts  to  this:  Miracles  are 

*  Professor  Huxley  has  clearly  and  candidly  pointed  out 
the  error  of  Hume's  argument  ("  Hume,"  p.  133).  But  he 
misses  the  mark  altogether  when  he  tries  to  illustrate  the 
incredibility  of  miracles  from  the  supposed  alleged  occur- 
rence of  some  isolated  incredible  phenomenon,  such  as  the 
apparition  of  a  live  centaur.  The  miracles  of  Scripture  are 
not  isolated  occurrences.  Their  evidence  consists  in  their 
setting,  their  vital  place  in  the  history,  and  the  impossibility 
of  really  explaining  the  history  without  them.  If  a  race  of 
centaurs  had  left  their  bones  in  the  rocks,  we  should  be  com- 
pelled to  believe  in  their  existence ;  and  the  miracles  of  the 
Pentateuch  and  of  the  Gospels  have  left  stronger  witnesses 
than  fossil  bones — living  results. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  2OI 

incredible  because  they  are  impossible;  they  are 
impossible  because  they  have  never  been  known 
to  happen;  and  the  proof  that  they  have  never 
been  known  to  happen  is,  that  they  are  incredi- 
ble and  impossible.  Any  experience,  therefore, 
which  affirms  that  they  have  actually  been  wit- 
nessed must  be  false.  Thus  barely  stated,  this 
celebrated  argument  makes  but  a  poor  show  of 
either  science  or  logic. 

Hence  the  skeptic  is  forced  to  maintain  that 
the  Pentateuch  was  not  written  by  Moses.  Be- 
cause, setting  aside  not  only  inspiration  but  even 
honesty,  if  the  great  lawgiver  simply  possessed 
ordinary  common  sense,  it  is  incredible  that  he 
should  have  based  his  whole  legislation  on  im- 
aginary prodigies,  and  appealed  to  the  whole  na- 
tion to  testify  to  the  truth  of  accounts  which- 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  knew  to  be  fables. 
If  then  Moses  really  wrote  the  Pentateuch,  the 
miracles  recorded  in  Exodus  and  Deuteronomy 
must  really  have  taken  place.  They  are  facts  of 
which  science  is  as  much  bound  to  take  account 
as  of  any  other  facts  in  human  experience. 

That  the  intense  culture  of  science  begets  in 
many  minds  a  disposition  to  skepticism  regarding 
miracles  (or  even  skepticism  of  a  wider  range)  is 
neither  a  stain  upon  science  nor  an  argument  for 
unbelief.  It  is  simply  an  example  of  the  infirm- 


202  THE  ORIGIN   OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

ity  of  human  intellect.  Absorbing  devotion  to 
any  branch  of  study  always  involves  the  peril  of 
getting  the  intellect  cramped  in  one  attitude,  the 
mental  vision  stinted  to  one  focus.  Preoccupied 
with  the  grand  ideas  of  immutable  law,  and  of 
the  unchanging  order  of  nature,  the  student  of 
science  is  apt  to  forget  that  in  every  experiment 
by  which  he  interrogates  nature,  every  word  he 
utters,  every  movement  of  his  limbs  and  fingers, 
he  is  a  living  example  of  the  power  of  personal 
will  to  control  nature  without  interrupting  the 
uniformity  of  law.  A  miracle  is  simply  an  ex- 
ercise of  the  divine  will  to  produce  a  special  re- 
sult. It  is  absurd  to  suppose  the  Creator  devoid 
of  that  power  which  is  put  forth  by  every  child 
who  flings  ,a  stone  into  the  air,  hits  a  mark  with 
an  arrow,  or  in  any  other  way  subjects  matter 
and  force  to  his  will.  It  is  ridiculous  to  assert 
that  the  Almighty  Maker  has  so  tied  his  own 
hands  with  the  laws  of  his  own  universe  that 
he  cannot  do  what  he  sees  wise  and  good  to  do. 

"Miracles,"  the  skeptic  may  rejoin,  uare 
not  abstractly  impossible,  but  -it  is  incredible  that 
the  Creator  would  ever  derange  the  grand  and 
solid  order  of  his  universe  for  the  purpose  of  as- 
tonishing or  converting  a  few  thousands  of  half- 
barbarous  Hebrews,  the  rest  of  the  \vorld  mean- 
while remaining  ignorant  of  the  alleged  mir- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   HEBREW  RELIGION.  203 

acles."  The  argument  is  thus  removed  from 
scientific  ground,  where  it  has  no  real  standing, 
to  the  moral,  which  is  doubtless  its  proper  field. 
Calmly  examined  in  this  light,  the  objection 
against  the  miracles  of  the  Pentateuch  is  trans- 
formed into  a  powerful  argument  in  their  favor. 
For  supposing  that  the  special  exercise  of  divine 
power  which  we  term  miracle  is  credible,  pro- 
vided the  end  to  be  answered  is  of  adequate  im- 
portance, let  the  reader  consider  whether  any  end 
could  be  more  worthy  than  to  impress  on  the  mind 
of  a  whole  nation  with  an  indelible  force  which 
no  lapse  of  time  could  weaken  the  lesson  of  the 
omnipotence,  wisdom,  goodness,  and  power  of 
the  Creator,  and  the  vanity  of  whatever  else  is 
called  God;  to  inspire  their  faith,  attract  their 
love,  awe  them  into  implicit  obedience,  and  pre- 
pare their  minds  to  receive  the  divine  law  as  the 
basis  of  personal,  social,  and  national  life ;  espe- 
cially if  this  nation  traced  back  its  origin  to 
ancestors  to  whom  special  divine  manifestations 
had  been  made  and  promises  given  regarding 
their  remote  posterity,  and  was  designed  in  ful- 
filment of  those  promises  to  keep  alive  the  light 
of  sacred  tradition,  and  to  furnish  in  the  fulness 
of  time  the  teachers  of  the  whole  human  race. 

In  what  other  way  is  it  conceivable  that  these 
lessons  could  have  been  effectually  taught  to  the 


2O4  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

Hebrews?  True,  the  immense  majority  of  man- 
kind were  ignorant,  and  even  down  to  the  present 
day  are  ignorant,  both  of  the  miracles  and  of  the 
lessons.  Bnt  this  is  but  one  example  of  a  law 
which  governs  all  human  progress.  Truth,  like 
light,  radiates  from  fixed  centres.  Great  discov- 
eries, destined  in  the  long  run  to  revolutionise 
human  life  and  history,  are  at  first  the  possession 
of  a  few,  or  of  a  single  mind.  As  matter  of  his- 
toric fact,  an  unbroken  living  chain  of  religious 
faith,  teaching,  sympathy,  prayer,  and  practice 
connects  the  tent  of  Abraham  and  the  legislation 
of  Sinai,  through  the  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus, 
with  the  religious  life  of  modern  Christendom, 
and  with  the  moral  power  (the  only  one  yet  dis- 
covered) which  has  shown  itself  capable  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  in  Polynesia,  in  New7  Guinea, 
in  Madagascar,  in  South  and  Central  Africa,  of 
lifting  half-barbarous  or  wholly  savage  and  brutal 
tribes  into  civilisation,  morality,  and  liberty. 

2.  The  second  strong  contrast  between  the  re- 
ligious teaching  of  Genesis  and  those  of  the  later 
books  of  Moses  is  presented  by  the  elaborate  reli- 
gious ceremonial  ordained  by  the  Mosaic  law. 
The  leading  elements  of  this  system  were  three: 
a  sanctuary,  or  consecrated  centre  of  worship; 
sacrifices,  most  accurately  discriminated  and  clas- 
sified; and  an  hereditary  priesthood. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  2O5 

The  Tabernacle,  or  "tent  of  the  testimony," 
which  accompanied  the  inarch  of  Israel,  taken 
down  when  the  host  moved  and  set  up  where 
they  halted,  taught  the  great  principle — a  lesson 
likewise  taught  at  the  burning  bush  and  at  Si- 
nai— that  sanctity  is  not  inherent  in  any  conse- 
crated spot,  but  depends  on  the  divine  Presence, 
to  be  expected  and  bestowed  wherever  the  people 
of  God  are  assembled.  What  the  Tabernacle  was 
to  the  camp,  the  Temple  afterwards  was  to  the 
land  and  to  the  holy  city. 

The  principal  idea  symbolized  in  the  Taber- 
nacle was  evidently  that  of  divine  Presence — • 
Jehovah  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  Israel.  The 
ideas  of  worship  and  sacrifice  were  secondary, 
dependent  on  this.  The  pillar  of  cloud  and  of 
fire  was  the  visible  miraculous  witness  that  this 
divine  Presence  was  a  reality.  The  people  were 
to  consider  themselves  a  nation  of  priests.  Sani- 
tary regulations,  military  order  in  camp  or  on 
march,  political  assemblies,  personal  behavior, 
as  well  as  religious  worship,  all  were  to  be  ruled 
by  this  sublime  idea — the  presence  of  the  divine 
King  with  his  chosen  people.  * 

*  E.g.,Exod.  25:8;  29:42-46;  33:15,16;  Lev.  26:12;  Deut. 
23 : 14.  Our  English  translators  have  not  been  careful  to  pre- 
serve the  distinction  between  the  two  Hebrew  words  applied 
to  the  tabernacle  :  inishkan,  habitation,  and  ohel,  tent.  The 
.term  Shckinah,  used  in  later  Hebrew  for  the  manifestation  of 


2o6THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

An  hereditary  priesthood  was  familiar  to  the 
Israelites  as  an  Egyptian  institution.  But  where- 
as the  priests  of  Egypt  were  a  territorial  caste, 
over  whose  lands  the  State  had  no  control,  Gen. 
47: 22,  26,  the  law  of  Moses  enacted  that  the  tribe 
of  Levi  should  not  share  in  the  division  of  the 
land  of  Canaan,  excepting  a  number  of  allotted 
cities,  each  with  a  narrow  strip  of  land  surround- 
ing it.  Consecrated  to  the  service  of  Jehovah, 
they  were  to  be  sustained  by  the  free-will  offerings 
of  the  nation. 

Animal  sacrifices,  unlike  the  tabernacle  and 
the  tribal  priesthood,  were  no  novelty.  From 
the  beginning  they  had  been  recognized  as  the 
appointed  mode  of  divine  worship.  The  book  of 
Genesis  contains  no  record  of  their  institution; 
but  the  statement,  Gen.  3:21,  that  after  the 
transgression  of  our  first  parents  the  Lord  God 
clothed  them  with  skins,  has  been  reasonably  in- 
terpreted to  imply  that  they  were  commanded  to 

the  divine  glory,  is  connected  with  the  first  word,  cf.  John 
1:14.  The  two  are  distinguished  in  Exod.  40: 18, 19.  The  hab- 
itation or  tabernacle  proper  was  the  structure  of  gilded  boards, 
with  its  hangings  of  woven  work.  The  tent  of  goats'  hair, 
Exod.  26: 7,  was  spread  over  this  inner  structure.  The  cover- 
ing, mikseh,  of  leather  and  sealskin  (see  "  Speaker's  Commen- 
tary" on  Exod.  25: 5  for  this  rendering)  seems  to  have  been  a 
light,  strong  waterproof  over-roof,  to  throw  off  rain  and  snow. 
The  same  word  is  used  of  the  deck  or  roof  of  Noah's  ark, 
Gen.  8:13. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  2O/ 

sacrifice  the  beasts,  whose  skins  they  were  then 
instructed  to  prepare  and  wear  as  symbols  of  the 
covering  or  pardon  of  sin  through  atonement. 

What  appears  to  have  been  novel  in  the  sacri- 
ficial ritual  established  by  Moses  was  the  elabo- 
rate distinction  and  classification  of  animal  sac- 
rifices under  the  three  principal  kinds  of  burnt- 
offering,  sin-offering,  and  peace-offering  or  thank- 
offering.  The  name  for  the  first  literally  means 
"that  which  goeth  up,"  namely,  in  fire  and 
smoke  to  heaven.  The  second,  the  name  for 
which  properly  means  "sin,"  includes  the  "tres- 
pass-offering." Authorities  are  divided  as  to  the 
meaning  of  the  name  of  the  third  class— "  peace- 
offering,"  or  "thank-offering;"  but  the  general 
idea  is  the  same.  Bwald  asserts  that  previous  to 
the  legislation  of  Sinai  "the  most  varied  forms  of 
sacrifice  had  been  long  in  operation,  each  with 
its  special  drift  and  corresponding  belief."*  But 
he  can  furnish  no  proof  of  this  assertion  beyond 
the  casual  intimations  in  Bxod.  10125;  18:12; 
possibly  Gen.  31:54,  that  some  distinctions  were 
recognized.  The  sacrifices  of-  Noah  and  of  Job 
are  expressly  called  "burnt-offerings;"  and  from 
Gen.  22:2  we  gather  that  those  of  Abraham 
were  of  the  same  character.  It  is  generally  ac- 
knowledged that  the  most  prominent  idea  syni- 

*  "  Antiquities  of  Israel,"  p.  25,  Solly's  translation. 


20STHE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

bolued  in  this  kind  of  sacrifice  is  that  of  complete 
consecration  to  God.  .  But  the  idea  of  atonement 
for  sin  is  very  plainly  recognized  in  Job  1:5;  42 : 8. 
In  like  manner  the  idea  of  atonement  must  not 
be  excluded  from  the  peace-offer  ing,  as  is  plain 
from  Lev.  3:1,  2;  17:1-14.  During  the  sojourn 
in  the  wilderness,  when  the  main  sustenance  of 
the  Israelites  was  the  daily  manna,  no  beast  was 
to  be  slaughtered  for  food  without  being  treated 
as  a  peace-offering.  * 

The  sacredness  of  blood,  as  representing  the 
soul  or  life,  was  indicated  in  the  law  given  to 
Noah,  Gen.  9:4.  But  the  atoning  value  of  blood 
is  first  distinctly  set  forth  in  the  case  of  the  Pass- 
over lamb,  Bxod.  12,  which  may  be  considered 
the  prototype  of  the  peace-offerings.  Kwald  truly 
says,  u  No  heathen  nation  had  such  ideas  about 
human  sin  and  divine  grace  as  had  the  people  of 
Israel,  ...  so  that  it  was  only  in  this  nation  that 
the  blood  assumed  this  unique  and  exalted  sig- 
nificance, a'nd  only  there  that  it  became  the  cen- 
tre of  the  whole  sacrificial  procedure." 

Among  heathen  nations,  as  in  the  poems  of 
Homer,  we  find  the  custom  of  offering  to  the  gods 
a  portion  of  the  flesh  and  a  libation  of  the  wine  at 
banquets.  At  first  sight  this  seems  closely  to  re- 

*  Compare  Dent.  12: 15, 16  for  the  modification  of  this  law 
after  they  entered  the  Promised  Land. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   HEBREW  RELIGION.  2OQ 

semble  the  thank-offering  or  peace-offering  of 
Hebrew  worship;  but  on  reflection  we  discover  a 
wide  and  important  difference  between  sacrificing 
a  part  of  the  feast  and  feasting  on  a  sacrifice.  In 
the  one  case  the  gods  were  invoked  as  guests  at 
the  banquet;  in  the  other  God  himself  is  regarded 
as  bidding  his  children  to  his  table.  Thus,  of  the 
seventy  chiefs  who  with  Moses,  Aaron,  and  two 
of  Aaron's  sons  were  admitted  to  the  feast  of  the 
peace-offerings  in  Sinai,  on  the  ratification  of  the 
covenant,  and  to  a  vision  of  the  divine  glory,  we 
read,  "They  saw  God,  and  did  eat  and  drink." 
Exod.  24:5-11. 

The  connection  between  religion  and  history, 
noticed  above  as  the  first  great  distinctive  charac- 
ter of  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures, is  strongly  marked  with  regard  to  these 
three  essential  elements  of  the  system  set  up  by 
Moses:  the.  Tabernacle,  the  Priesthood,  the  Sac- 
rificial Ritual.  All  three,  in  the  records  which 
have  come  down  to  us,  are  inseparably  inter- 
woven with  the  main  facts  of  Hebrew  story — the 
deliverance  from  Egypt,  the  encampment  at  Si- 
nai, the  covenant  between  Jehovah  and  his  peo- 
ple, the  giving  of  the  law,  the  stubborn  rebel- 
liousness of  Israel,  and  the  consequent  delay  of 
their  entrance  into  Canaan  until  the  death  of 
Moses  in  the  fortieth  year  from  the  exodus.  You 


2IOTHE  ORIGIN  OK  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

cannot  explain  the  religion  apart  from  the  his- 
tory nor  the  history  apart  from  the  religion. 
Criticism  may,  in  the  judgment  of  the  critics, 
pull  the  whole  fabric  to  pieces;  but  it  is  power- 
less to  supply  anything  even  reasonably  probable 
in  its  place. 

A  great  deal  has  been  made,  in  the  interest  of 
this  destructive  criticism,  of  the  alleged  inconsis- 
tency between  the  provision  in  Deuteronomy, 
chap.  12,  for  a  single  sanctuary  in  the  land  of 
Canaan  and  the  record  in  the  subsequent  history 
of  altars  set  up  and  sacrifices  offered  at  various 
centres  of  worship:  as  by  the  people  at  Bochim; 
by  Gideon  at  Ophrah ;  by  Manoah  at  Zorah ;  by 
Samuel  at  Ramah,  Gilgal,  Bethlehem;  by  David 
on  Moriah;  by  Elijah  on  Carmel,  Judg.  2:5;  6:24; 
13:16;  i  Sam.  7:17;  10:8;  16:2;  2  Sam.  24:25; 
i  Kings  18:30. 

The  discrepancy,  if  there  be  one,  belongs  to 
Deuteronomy  itself,  which  commands  the  offering 
of  burnt-offerings  and  peace-offerings  on  an  altar 
of  stone  on  Mount  Ebal.  It  is  true  that  when 
this  command  was  carried  out  by  Joshua  the  tab- 
ernacle was  probably  set  up  at  Shechem,  Josh. 
8:30-35;  but  the  sacrifices  were  offered,  not  on 
the  brazen  altar,  but  on  the  separate  altar  on 
Mount  Ebal.  The  fact  is  that  all  these  cases  are 
covered  by  the  promise  connected  with  the  origi- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.   211 

tial  law  regarding  altars,  Hxod.  20:24-26:  "In  all 
places  where  I  record  my  name  I  will  come  to 
thee  and  I  will  bless  thee."  Sacred  associations 
naturally  gathered  round  any  spot  where  the  tab- 
ernacle stood  for  a  considerable  space  of  time. 
Unity  of  national  worship  was  not  endangered  by 
the  building  of  an  altar  on  any  special  occasion 
by  a  recognized  representative  of  divine  author- 
ity, like  Samuel  or  Elijah.  What  would  endan- 
ger it  was  the  practice  of  private  unauthorised 
sacrifices,  such  as  those  condemned  in  i  Kings 
3:2;  22:43;  2  Kings  12:3.* 

As  the  recorded  history  of  ancient  Israel  fur- 
nishes the  only  key  to  the  religion  of  the  Old 
Testament,  otherwise  inexplicable,  so  the  reli- 
gion bears  witness  to  the  history.  Solomon's 
temple  presupposes  the  tabernacle.  It  actually 
contained  the  ark.  But  the  ark  and  the  taberna- 
cle presuppose  the  wandering  in  the  wilderness; 
which  in  its  turn  presupposes  Sinai  and  the  de- 
liverance. The  whole  history  from  the  birth  of 

*  When  Solomon  sacrificed  at  Gibeon  the  tabernacle  was 
still  there,  though  the  ark  had  been  brought  to  Jerusalem,  i 
Chron.  4;  16:37-40;  2  Chron.  1:3-6.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  tabernacle  was  for  a  time  set  up  at  Bethel ;  see  Judg.  20. 
After  its  removal  from  Shiloh  we  find  it  at  Nob  and  Mizpah ; 
but  these  are  probably  the  same ;  and  Gibeon  was  so  near 
that  possibly  only  one  sacred  place  is  referred  to  under  all 
three  names.  See  "  Tent  Work,"  2  : 105,  116-120.  Conder's 
"  Handbook  to  Bible,"  pp.  275-277, 


212  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

Samuel  attests  the  importance  of  both  the  ark 
and  the  tabernacle.  David's  institutions,  which 
survived  the  Captivity  and  lasted  into  the  Chris- 
tian era,  attest  the  national  importance  and  nu- 
merical strength  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  their  sacred 
character,  and  the  hereditary  priesthood  of  the 
descendants  of  Aaron.  How  can  these  (joined 
with  the  fact  that  Ivevi  was  a  landless  tribe)  be 
explained  apart  from  a  legislation  coeval  with 
the  existence  of  the  nation?  In  a  word,  is  it  ra- 
tionally conceivable  that  a  nation  so  numerous, 
compact,  tenacious  of  tradition,  yet  sturdily  in- 
dependent, prone  to  strife,  and  obstinately  addict- 
ed to  forbidden  rites,  should  have  been  persuaded 
(before,  during,  or  after  the  reigns  of  David  and 
Solomon)  to  receive  a  body  of  new  institutions, 
forged  laws,  and  fictitious  public  annals,  and  that 
this  astonishing  fabrication,  unparalleled  in  all 
literature,  should  have  gained  that  prodigious 
hold  on  national  belief  and  reverence  which  the 
writings  ascribed  to  Moses  undeniably  possessed 
after  the  return  from  Babylon  ? 

The  demands  made  on  our  faith  by  modern 
skeptical  criticism  far  exceed  in  fact  those  made 
by  all  the  miracles  of  the  Bible ;  'because  in  the 
latter  case  apparent  physical  impossibilities  find 
an  adequate  explanation — to  wit,  in  the  exercise 
of  divine  power  for  worthy  ends;  whereas  in  the 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  213 

former  case  moral   impossibilities  are  presented 
for  our  belief  with  no  explanation  at  all. 

II. 

The  intimate  blending  of  history  and  religion, 
which  we  have  noted  as  the  first  great  character- 
istic of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  is  the  condition 
of  the  two  other  characteristics  also  indicated: 
UNITY  and  DEVELOPMENT.  These  may  be  best 
considered  not  separately  but  together;  for  de- 
velopment implies  unity,  and  the  unity  discover- 
able in  the  Bible  is  a  unity  of  growth — not  formal 
and  mechanical,  but  vital,  internal,  spiritual. 

Clearly,  if  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
possess  any  real  unity,  it  must  be  of  this  nature. 
For  they  do  not  compose  a  book  in  any  ordinary 
sense  of  the  word.  They  are  a  library,  a  litera- 
ture. They  range  over  a  thousand  years.  Their 
writers  differ  widely  in  character,  genius,  educa- 
tion, position.  They  reflect  the  most  opposite 
phases  of  national  life.  Diversity  of  contents  and 
variety  of  form  could  scarcely  be  more  strongly 
exemplified  than  in  this  collection  of  annals,  laws, 
biography,  poems,  aphorisms,  prophetic  oracles. 
If  the  unity  of  these  sacred  writings  were  merely 
artificial  and  conventional,  conferred  by  authority 
and  custom,  it  would  dissolve  at  the  touch  of  se- 
rious examination.  If,  on  the  contrary,  deep  be- 


214  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

low  this  diversified  and  broken  surface  we  find  a 
unity  of  thought,  an  unbroken  vein  of  religious 
teaching,  growing  richer  from  age  to  age,  then 
this  unity  is  a  fact  more  important  than  the  di- 
versity. It  must  have  an  adequate  cause.  It  de- 
mands an  intelligent  explanation.  If  natural 
causes  cannot  explain  it,  we  must  infer  supernat- 
ural. If  human  authors  could  not,  or  manifestly 
did  not,  combine  to  produce  it,  the  only  possible 
explanation  is  divine  authorship.  * 

Does  such  unity,  progressively  unfolding  it- 
self, actually  characterize  the  Hebrew  sacred  wri- 
tings? To  answer  this  question  let  us  take  first 
the  fundamental  idea  of  all  religion — the  being 
and  character  of  God.  The  book  of  Genesis 
opens  with  affirming  the  deepest  relation  we  and 
all  other  beings  sustain  to  God  as  our  Creator. 
Metaphysical  questions  as  to  self-existence,  eter- 
nity, infinity,  space,  and  time,  the  nature  of  mat- 
ter and  of  mind,  are  never  raised.  Yet,  in  fact, 
they  all  lie  wrapped  up  in  the  plain  historical 
statement  that u  in  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth."  Creation  appears  in  the 
record  as  an  orderly  process,  crowned  with  the 
birth  of  man.  Its  successive  stages — the  hidden 

*  For  a  powerful  exhibition  of  some  aspects  of  this  great 
subject  see  Henry  Rogers'  "  Lectures  on  the  Superhuman 
Origin  of  the  Bible,"  pp.  152-181. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  21$ 

stirring  of  life  under  the  dark  waters,  the  dawn  of 
light,  the  formation  of  an  atmosphere,  the  up- 
heaval of  islands  and  continents,  the  growth  of 
plant  life,  the  appearance  in  the  clear  sky  of  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  the  appearance  on  the  stage  of 
life  of  fishes  and  other  marine  animals,  reptiles, 
birds,  mammals,  last  of  all  man — display  a  won- 
derful agreement  with  the  latest  discoveries  of 
human  science.  But  a  height  is  reached  of  which 
science  knows  nothing  in  the  account  of  the  Cre- 
ator's beneficent  delight  in  his  work,  Gen.  1:31, 
and  in  the  assertion  of  a  divine  type  and  purpose 
in  man,  the  lord  of  creation,  ver.  26-28. 

Man  is  represented  as  from  the  first  placed  in 
direct  moral  relations  with  his  Maker.  A  spe- 
cially prepared  home,  work,  the  Sabbath,  mar- 
riage, and  a  positive  command,  the  test  of  obedi- 
ence, bless  and  fence  his  life.  Disobedience  is 
represented  as  putting  him,  as  it  needs  must,  in  a 
sadly  altered  relation  to  God.  He  is  called  to 
account,  found  guilty,  sentenced  to  the  loss  of 
Eden,  made  subject  to  death.  No  explanation  is 
given  of  that  awful  word.  If  bodily  dissolution, 
simple  animal  death,  be  meant,  then  it  is  evident 
that  execution  of  the  penalty,  ( '  in  the  day  that 
thou  eatest  thereof,  dying  thou  shalt  die,"  was 
deferred.  If  the  history  means  us  to  understand 
that  it  was  rigorously  carried  out,  then  evidently 


2I6THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

something  else  is  meant  than  animal  death,  how- 
soever closely  connected  with  it.  Nevertheless, 
man  retains  his  highest  privilege — direct  con- 
verse with  his  Maker.  Not  to  repeat  here  what 
has  already  been  said  concerning  sacrifice,  we  see 
God  reasoning  with  Cain  when  his  mind  is  dull 
with  discontent  and  murderous  jealousy,  seeking 
to  win  him  to  repentance,  and  cheering  him,  as 
Adam  and  Eve  were  cheered  after  their  trans- 
gression, with  words  of  grace  and  promise.  Gen. 
4:6,  7. 

We  shall  search  in  vain  the  sacred  books  and 
the  entire  literature  of  pagan  nations  for  any  ade- 
quate parallel  to  these  representations  of  the  ab- 
solute authority  and  just  seventy  of  the  Creator, 
united  with  fatherly  tenderness  towards  the  sin- 
ner and  effort  to  win  him  to  repentance  or 
hold  him  back  from  sin.  But  parallels  abound 
throughout  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  As  examples 
we  may  refer  to  the  startling  description  of  divine 
sorrow  over  man's  sin,  and  the  hundred  and  twen- 
ty years'  respite  granted  in  Noah's  time  to  the 
doomed  world,  Gen.  6:3,  5-7;  the  place  assigned 
to  intercession,  as  of  Abraham  for  Sodom,  of  Mo- 
ses for  Israel,  of  Job  for  his  friends,  Gen.  18:23- 
33;  Exod.  32:30,  ff.;  33:6,  7;  Job  1:5;  42:8;  the 
pathetic  warnings  of  Moses  to  Israel,  e.  g. ,  Deut. 
8:30;  the  echo  of  those  warnings  by  his  successor, 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  2 1/ 

Joshua,  Josh.  24:14-25;  Samuel's  faithful  and 
solemn  rebuke  to  the  National  Assembly,  joined 
with  the  assurance  that  the  Lord  would  ' '  not  for- 
sake his  people,  for  his  great  name's  sake,"  i 
Sam.  12:7-25;  Isaiah's  call  to  come  and  reason 
together  with  God,  joined  with  a  gracious  prom- 
ise of  pardon  to  the  penitent,  Isa.  1:18;  Jeremi- 
ah's thunderbolts  of  terror,  flashing  and  pealing 
through  a  tempest  of  tears,  Jer.  2:2-13;  4:1-9; 
5:9-31;  9:1-24;  Ezekiel's  trumpet-blast  of  warn- 
ing, E^ek.  33:7-20;  the  homely  remonstrance 
and  final  warning  of  the  latest  of  the  prophets, 
Mai.  i :  6-1 1 :  4:1.  The  list  might  be  indefinitely 
extended.  The  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist, 
the  last  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament,  sounded 
afresh  the  key-note  which  thus  rings  through  the 
Hebrew  Bible.  Its  full-toned  harmony  is  heard 
in  the  preaching  of  Jesus:  in  his  invitation  to  the 
" laboring  and  heavy  laden,"  his  picture  of  the 
prodigal  returning  to  his  father,  his  lament  over 
impenitent  Jerusalem. 

From  these  specimens  it  is  clear  that  a  consis- 
tent strain  of  teaching,  in  the  form  not  of  dogma 
but  of  historic  narrative  and  practical  appeal, 
pervades  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  Hu- 
man life  is  everywhere  regarded  in  direct  moral 
relation  to  divine  law,  authority,  and  mercy. 
The  appeal  is  sometimes  chiefly  to  the  nation, 


2l8  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

sometimes  to  individuals.  But  in  both  cases  one 
fact  is  to  be  noted,  unaccountable,  I  think,  on  the 
supposition  that  we  have  here  no  divine  message, 
but  simply  men  seeking  to  instruct  their  fellows. 
The  aim  throughout  is  not  to  inform  and  con- 
vince the  intellect,  but  to  affect  and  control  the 
affections,  conscience,  and  conduct. 

The  portraiture  of  the  divine  character  thus 
progressively  set  forth  must  be  further  studied,  if 
we  desire  any  clear  view  of  it,  in  two  words  of 
very  frequent  recurrence  and  high  significance — 
' ' righteous, ' '  or  ( 'just, ' '  and  ' ' holy. ' >  The  words 
intimately  connected  with  these  must  of  course  be 
included.  The  intuitive  belief  in  the  justice  of 
God  as  "Judge  of  all  the  earth"  is  the  foundation 
of  Abraham's  plea  for  Sodom.  A  sense  of  justice 
and  a  keen,  hot  resentment  against  injustice 
spring  up  so  soon  in  the  breasts  of  children  that 
we  are  sure  human  language  very  early  contained 
words  to  denote  these  feelings.  As  soon  as  men 
formed  any  notion  of  moral  goodness,  human  or 
divine,  the  attribute  of  righteousness  must  inevi- 
tably have  entered  into  it. 

"Holiness"  is  a  more  difficult,  more  advanced 
idea.  It  does  not  naturally  spring  up  in  a  child's 
mind.  The  words  expressing  it  do  not  occur  in 
Genesis,  excepting  in  the  statement  that  God 
blessed  and  sanctified,  hallowed  or  made  holy,  the 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.   2 19 

seventh  day.  This  excepted,  the  notion  of  holi- 
ness meets  us  first  in  the  command  to  Moses  to 
strip  off  his  sandals  because  he  was  standing  on 
"holy  ground,"  Exod.  3:5.  The  spot  was  con- 
secrated by  the  divine  Presence.  The  original 
meaning  of  this  group  of  words  seems  to  have 
been  separation,  q.  d.,  to  God's  service:  consecra- 
tion. A  difficulty  obviously  arises  in  the  trans- 
ference of  such  words  to  God  himself.  What  is 
really  meant  by  the  command  u  Be  ye  holy,  for  I 
am  holy"?  The  reply  must  be  sought  not  in 
logic  but  in  feeling.  Moral  ideas  enter  the  intel- 
lect through  the  emotions.  Reverence,  awe,  rig- 
orously pure  worship,  imply  corresponding  qual- 
ities in  Him  to  whom  they  are  due.  The  stronger 
the  emotions  the  more  vivid  the  idea.  The  fault- 
less purity,  rigid  separation,  absolute  surrender, 
mysterious  reverence  with  which  the  Mosaic  law 
invested  every  thing  or  person  consecrated  to  God 
trained  the  worshipper's  feelings  regarding  God 
and  these  feelings  gave  birth  to  ideas  in  their 
own  likeness.  God's  own  innate  holiness  came 
to  be  recognized  as  the  fountain  from  which  the 
holiness  belonging  to  things,  persons,  actions, 
times,  places,  streamed  forth.  Hence  the  central 
idea  of  holiness  in  the  Old  Testament  is  essential- 
ly moral  or  spiritual.  To  suppose  it  ceremonial 
because  largely  taught  by  ceremonies  is  a  shallow 


220  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

but  fatal  error.  The  smallest  amount  of  intelli- 
gent reflection  must  have  taught  the  Hebrew 
worshipper  that  ceremonial,  ritual  holiness  could 
not  belong  to  God.  God's  holiness  could  mean 
nothing  less  than  that  nature  and  character  which 
make  him  supremely  worthy  of  worship  and  love, 
what  in  modern  phrase  we  express  by  "supreme 
moral  excellence,"  or  "spiritual  perfection." 

The  importance  of  this  fact  in  regard  to  our 
inquiry  into  the  origin  of  the  Hebrew  religion 
cannot  be  exaggerated.  It  lies  at  the  very  heart 
of  that  religion.  No  explanation  is  worth  look- 
ing at  which  does  not  account  for  it.  The  evi- 
dence of  its  reality  must  be  sought  in  careful 
study,  not  only  of  the  books  of  Moses,  but  of  the 
commentary  supplied  by  later  writings — especially 
the  Psalms,  Proverbs,  and  prophetic  books — on 
the  view  of  divine  holiness  actually  held  and 
taught  by  the  religious  authorities  of  the  nation. 
It  pertains,  however,  to  the  very  outset  of  such 
study  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Ten  Command- 
ments— the  starting-point  of  the  whole  law — are 
not  ritual,  but  moral.  The  tenth  refers  purely  to 
inward  desire  and  will.  Comp.  Rom.  7:7.  The 
law  of  the  Sabbath  is  no  exception,  for  abstinence 
from  labor  is  not  a  ceremony,  but  as  practical  a 
thing  as  abstinence  from  theft  or  perjury;  and 
the  moral  results  of  the  religious  observance  of 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   HEBREW  RELIGION.  221 

the   Sabbath   are  as  real  and  wide-reaching  as 
those  of  obedience  to  any  other  commandment. 

Many  readers  will  be  aware  that  a  completely 
different  view  is  maintained  by  critics  and  divines 
of  undoubted  ability  and  scholarship,  who  claim 
to  stand  in  the  front  rank  as  leaders  of  Biblical 
science  and  of  theological  thought.  In  the  move- 
ment long  and  strenuously  carried  on  for  the  dis- 
integration of  the  Bible,  an  important  place  is 
filled  by  the  view  that  the  Levitical  or  legal 
teaching  and  the  prophetic  teaching  of  the  Old 
Testament  Scripture  are  independent,  inconsis- 
tent, and  contradictory.  If  David — to  whom  the 
organization  of  the  priests  and  Levites,  the  regu- 
lations of  the  temple  ritual,  and  the  very  build- 
ing of  the  temple  were  owing — says  that  "the 
law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  converting  the  soul," 
and  prays  to  be  kept  from  u secret  faults,"  and 
to  have  "a  clean  heart  and  a  right  spirit;"  if 
Solomon  declares  "the  fear  of  the  Lord"  to 
consist  in  departing  from  evil,  and  u  the  knowl- 
edge of  God"  to  be  inseparable  from  "righteous- 
ness and  judgment  and  equity,  yea,  every  good 
path;"  if  Isaiah  and  Amos  speak  with  scorn  of 
sacrifices  and  prayers  offered  by  those  ' (  whose 
hands  are  full  of  blood;"  if  Micah  asks,  "What 
doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly 
and  to  love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 


222  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

God?"  it  is  maintained  that  the  strong,  clear, 
deep  stream  of  teaching  of  which  these  are  sam- 
ples must  flow  from  another  fountain  than  that 
which  teaches  that  "the  blood  of  bulls  and  of 
goats,  and  the  ashes  of  a  heifer  sprinkling  the 
unclean,  sanctifieth  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh." 
Heb.  9:8-14. 

Of  course,  this  school  of  critics  deny  that  Mo- 
ses was  the  author  of  Deuteronomy;  otherwise 
their  view  would  be  at  once  convicted  of  error, 
since  none  of  the  prophets  can  go  beyond  the 
simple,  comprehensive  statements  of  Deuterono- 
my, which  describe  religion  as  essentially  consist- 
ing in  love,  faith,  and  obedience;  e.  g.,  Deut.  6:4, 
5;  8:1-3; 10:12-21;  13:4;  15: 7-10; 30:1-6,  11-15, 
20.  Perhaps  a  sufficient  refutation  of  the  view 
in  question  is  supplied  by  the  hundred  and  nine- 
teenth Psalm.  This  perfectly  unique  composi- 
tion gives  us  the  views  and  feelings  of  a  pious 
Israelite  (of  what  tribe,  rank,  or  calling  we  have 
no  means  of  guessing)  concerning  the  divine 
law.  The  written  word  of  God,  under  a  great 
variety  of  names  (the  Rabbins  reckon  ten\  is  here 
described  as  an  ideally  perfect  standard  of  charac- 
ter and  conduct,  "righteous  and  very  faithful," 
"  very  pure,"  and  "exceeding  broad,"  by  giving 
heed  to  which  the  young  man  may  u  cleanse  his 
way,"  the  afflicted  servant  of  God  be  quickened 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.    223 

and  comforted,  the  entrance  of  which  "giveth 
light,  it  giveth  understanding  to  the  simple." 
"Thy  righteousness,"  exclaims  the  Psalmist,  uis 
an  everlasting  righteousness,  and  Thy  law  is  the 
truth. ' '  It  seems  impossible  to  rise  to  a  higher  con- 
ception of  divine  truth,  or  a  loftier  level  of  spiritual 
temper  and  thought,  than  this  remarkable  Psalm 
exhibits.  Is  it  critical  acumen,  or  is  it  mere 
blindness,  which  can  discern  in  that  law  in  which 
the  Psalmist  beheld  such  divine  wonders  nothing 
but  the  work  of  priests  and  forgers;  a  melange  of 
superstitious  inventions,  heathen  traditions,  fic- 
titious histories,  and  pious  frauds  ?* 

One  other  point,  the  importance  of  which  can- 
not be  overestimated,  demands  careful  consider- 
ation. Over  against  the  conceptions  of  divine 
righteousness,  holiness,  and  purity  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  set  that  of  their  dark  opposite — human 
sin.  The  one  cannot  be  understood  apart  from 
the  other.  No  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  Hebrew 
religion  merits  serious  attention  which  cannot 
give  an  honest  and  satisfactory  reply  to  the  ques- 
tion, Whence  was  the  idea  of  sin  which  pervades  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures  derived? 

*  These  are  not  random  words,  but  a  guarded  and  a 
moderate  statement  of  what  is  implied  necessarily  in  the 
theory  that  the  laws  of  Moses  were  not  given  by  God,  and 
that  the  so-called  books  of  Moses  were  forgeries  of  later  ages. 


224THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

Not  even  the  poetic  and  historic  literature,  far 
less  the  sacred  books,  of  all  other  ancient  nations, 
can  stand  comparison  with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
in  human  interest.  No  phase  of  human  life  is 
unreflected  in  that  wondrous  mirror,  no  note  is 
left  untouched  throughout  the  diapason  of  human 
emotion.  Every  vicissitude  of  human  fortune 
finds  a  place  in  these  pages,  from  the  throne  to 
the  dungeon,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave. 
Kvery  type  of  human  character  is  represented, 
from  the  most  heroic  greatness  or  saintliest 
purity  to  the  most  unbridled  and  revolting  wick- 
edness. A  procession  of  empires  passes  across 
that  narrow  stage.  We  hear  the  jubilant  songs 
of  harvest  and  vintage,  the  music  of  feasts,  the 
stern  hymn  of  warriors,  the  paean  of  victory,  the 
choral  chant  of  temple  worship,  the  wail  of  the 
dirge.  Yet  with  this  unrivalled  fulness  and  all 
but  endless  variety  of  human  interest,  national 
tradition,  and  individual  portraiture,  it  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say  that  one  dominant  character 
pervades  the  whole  delineation;  one  thought 
underlies  the  whole,  even  where  it  does  not  ap- 
pear on  the  surface;  one  deep,  sorrowful  note 
rings  like  a  knell  through  all  the  music.  It  is 
that  which  St.  Paul  utters  when,  quoting  from 
i  the  Old  Testament,  he  says  that  "all  have  sinned, 
and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God. ' '  Rom.  3:23. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  22$ 

For  the  proof  that  this  is  so,  the  reader  must 
be  referred  to  the  entire  body  of  Hebrew  Scrip- 
ture. He  must  not  merely  scan  its  letter,  but 
labor  to  gauge  its  drift  and  fathom  its  spirit.  In 
this  attempt  it  is  indispensable  that  attention  be 
given  to  the  terms  under  which  this  conception 
of  sin  is  presented.  The  Hebrew  language  is 
rich  in  moral  synonyms.  Nine  principal  words 
may  be  noted,  without  separately  noticing  the 
various  forms  in  which  some  of  them  appear. 
Our  translators  have  observed  no  certain  rule  in 
rendering  them. 

1.  Chattath  (chattaah,  chefy  Sin;  perhaps  orig- 
inally "error,"  "  missing  the  mark." 

2.  Pesha'1:  Transgression;  perhaps  "breach." 

3.  Resha1 :  Unrighteousness;  wickedness. 

4.  Asham:    Guilt;    perhaps    originally    "de- 
fault;" the  word  is  rendered  "trespass"    in  the 
law  concerning  "trespass-offerings." 

5.  Avon:  Perversity;  crime. 

6.  Aven:  Vanity;  iniquity. 

7.  ' Evel    (avlali):    Wickedness;     depravity; 
properly  "  twisting  aside. " 

8.  Metal:  Trespass. 

9.  Re?  (rtfali):  111;  evil.* 

*  The  English  reader  may  find  the  occurrence  of  each 
Hebrew  word  in  Dr.  Young's  "Concordance,"  by  looking 
under  all  the  English  words,  "  sin,"  "iniquity,"  etc. 
15 


226  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  REUGION. 

One  fact  of  immense  interest  comes  out  from 
this  list  of  words;  namely,  that  the  Hebrew  con- 
ception of  sin  was  moral,  not  ceremonial.  This 
is  as  true  of  the  law  as  of  the  historical  and 
prophetical  writings.  The  reverse  might  have 
been  looked  for.  Considering  the  prominence 
given  in  the  ceremonial  law  to  ideas  of  defile- 
ment and  purification,  we  might  have  expected 
these  symbolic  notions  to  be  reflected  in  the  terms 
employed  to  express  sin.  Not  one  of  these  terms 
has  any  such  meaning.  Not  only  so.  Although 
it  is  certain  that  in  Hebrew  as  in  other  languages 
the  words  used  for  moral  attributes  and  sentiments 
must  have  been  originally  metaphors  taken  from 
objects  of  sense,  yet  in  none  of  these  Hebrew 
words  is  the  metaphor  obvious.  *  Their  etymolo- 
gy is  rather  matter  of  learned  conjectures  than  of 
certainty.  The  inference  is  plain.  These  words 
were  so  anciently  and  so  constantly  used  in  a 
moral  sense  that  the  metaphoric  meaning  had 
died  out  of  them  before  the  Hebrew  language 
took  the  earliest  form  in  which  we  find  it.  They 

*  They  contrast  curiously,  therefore,  with  a  great  number 
of  English  words,  in  some  of  which  the  metaphor  lies  on  the 
surface  (as  upright,  base,  heartless,  close-fisted) ;  while  in  others 
(as  right,  wrong,  perverse,  transgression)  it  is  transparent  to 
any  one  who  has  a  moderate  knowledge  of  etymology.  Our 
word  " sin"  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  very  ancient  word,  and 
seems  to  have  had  a  moral  meaning  from  the  first. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  22? 

had  come  to  stand  for  the  purely  moral  ideas  of 
disobedience  to  law,  infraction  of  right,  and  desert 
of  blame  and  penalty. 

The  reader  can  therefore  easily  estimate  the 
value  of  the  assertion  sometimes  made  as  confi- 
dently as  if  it  were  a  scientific  discovery,  that  the 
idea  of  sin  entertained  by  the  ancient  Hebrews 
was  that  of  ceremonial  defilement,  to  be  got  rid 
of  by  ceremonial  purification,  or  of  definite  out- 
ward acts,  to  be  balanced  by  other  definite  acts 
of  atonement  or  penalty.  The  Hebrew  language 
itself  bears  irrefragable  witness  that  the  pol- 
lutions and  purifications  ordained  by  the  cere- 
monial law  were  but  symbols  of  a  stain  they 
could  not  reach  and  a  purity  they  could  not 
bestow — the  pollution  of  the  heart  and  conscience 
by  inward  sin,  and  the  purification  of  divine  for- 
giveness and  restoration  to  God's  image.  If  the 
penitent  exclaimed,  "Thou  desires t  not  sacrifice, 
else  would  I  give  it, ' '  he  spoke  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  law,  which  ordained  for  such  crimes  as 
murder  and  adultery,  not  sacrifice,  but  "death 
without  mercy."  And  if  he  prayed,  "Hide  TJiy 
face  from  my  sins,  and  blot  out  all  mine  iniquities; 
create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  and  renew  a  right  spirit 
within  me,"  he  but  interpreted  the  deepest  lessons 
of  the  law,  which  shone  through  its  ritual  as 
through  a  transparent  veil:  lessons  which  the 


228  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

great  lawgiver  himself  declared  that  God's  own 
voice  had  proclaimed  in  his  ears.  Exod.  33:19; 
34:6. 

We  are  thus  brought  back  to  the  central  con- 
ception which  gives  unity  to  the  religious  teach- 
ing of  the  whole  body  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures — 
the  moral  character  of  God  in  personal  relation 
with  mankind  and  with  each  human  being. 
This  great  central  doctrine,  which  includes  the 
truths  of  man's  personality,  moral  character,  and 
accountableness,  is  developed  by  means  of  human 
history  and  experience,  especially  the  experience 
of  sin.  Four  main  lines  of  illustration  combine 
to  unfold  this  greatest  of  lessons,  i.  Public  his- 
tory, especially  as  concerned  with  those  calamities 
which  the  Scriptures  represent  as  divine  judg- 
ments on  sin :  as  the  deluge,  the  destruction  of 
Sodom,  the  overthrow  of  Pharaoh,  the  punish- 
ment of  the  rebellious  Israelites,  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  depraved  idolaters  of  Canaan,  the 
Babylonish  captivity,  the  overthrow  of  Babylon. 
2.  Symbolic  worship  and  priestly  mediation.  3. 
Prophetic  ministry,  interpreting  God's  law,  will, 
truth,  and  promises.  4.  Personal  experience;  viv- 
idly illustrating,  on  the  one  hand,  the  care  and 
guidance  of  God's  providence,  and  leading  and 
teaching  of  his  Spirit,  bestowed  on  those  who 
fear  him;  on  the  other  hand,  the  life  of  faith, 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   HEBREW  REUGION.  229 

penitence,  prayer,  and  loving  obedience  to  God. 
In  this  last  method  the  teaching  of  the  three 
other  methods  is  brought  to  a  practical  focus.  It 
may  be  summed  up  in  the  words  in  which  the 
most  sorrowful  of  the  prophets,  in  the  most 
mournful  book  of  Scripture,  utters  his  peaceful 
faith:  uThe  L,ord  is  good  unto  them  that  wait 
for  him,  to  the  soul  that  seeketh  him."  Lam. 

3- 25- 

One  of  the  strongest  points  of  contrast  between 
the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  and 
heathen  religions  is  its  purity  of  moral  sentiment. 
Paganism  deifies  lust.  The  orgies  of  the  wine- 
god  in  Greece,  the  abominations  of  which  it  is  a 
shame  even  to  speak,  practised  in  the  temples  of 
Babylon  and  Phoenicia,  the  priestly  frauds  which 
made  it  hard  for  Roman  augurs  to  keep  their 
countenance  in  one  another's  company,  find  no 
counterpart — nothing  but  stern  condemnation — 
in  the  religion  of  Jehovah.  Vices  shamelessly 
practised  among  the  cultured  Greeks,  and  sung 
about  by  the  most  elegant  Roman  poets,  were 
branded  with  infamy  among  the  Hebrews.  When 
these  plague-spots  infected  Israel,  as  they  often 
did,  it  was  always  in  connection  with  idolatry; 
and  they  were  denounced  by  the  prophets  as  the 
sure  precursors  of  national  ruin.  Vice  and  crime 
are  no  doubt  described,  when  the  purpose  of  the 


230  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

/  Scripture  narrative  requires,  with  antique  plain- 
ness  of  speech   shocking   to   our  modern   taste. 
The  failings  and  sins  of  pious  men  are  recorded 
j  with  merciless  candor.     But  never  can  one  detect 
j  /  a  trace  of  sympathy  with  vileness,  cruelty,  intem- 
j  /  perance,  or  falsehood.      Even  those  terrible  de- 
!  /   nunciations  of  transgressors  which  modern  read- 
ers are  often  at  a  loss  to  reconcile  with  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel,  draw  their  severity  from  that  in- 
tense moral  indignation  against  wrong,  in  which 
modern    sentiment   is   defective,    and   which    in 
those  rough   times  was  a   needful   safeguard  of 
moral  purity. 

Yet  the  religion  of  the  Bible  is  no  less  re- 
markable for  its  tenderness  than  for  its  severe 
purity.  Once  in  five  hundred  or  a  thousand 
years,  when  morality  is  on  the  brink  of  perish- 
ing among  men,  the  sword  of  justice  smites  and 
spares  not.  Hostile  criticism,  blind  because  hos- 
tile, fixes  on  these  rare  and  long-deferred  exam- 
ples of  divine  severity,  always  prefaced  by  for- 
bearance and  warning,  and  overlooks  the  fact 
that  the  prevailing  representation  of  the  divine 
character  places  mercy,  compassion,  kindness, 
tenderness  among  its  foremost  attributes.  Heath- 
en poets  have  sounded  the  depths  of  human  sor- 
row, passion,  and  pity;  but  nowhere  in  pagan  lit- 
erature, least  of  all  in  the  religious  books  of 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION.  231 

heathendom,  can  we  catch  even  the  echo  of  that 
full-toned  tenderness  and  gracious  comfort  which 
rings  through  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  assuring  us 
that  "the  L,ord  is  very  pitiful  and  of  tender  mer- 
cy. ' '  Even  the  lower  animals  are  represented  as 
largely  sharing  divine  care  and  compassion.  It 
is  not  a  little  significant  that  the  rainbow,  that 
smile  of  the  tempest  in  which  the  myths  of  heath- 
endom saw  only  a  bridge  for  spirits  to  cross,  is  in 
the  book  of  Genesis  the  emblem  of  God's  remem- 
brance of  man's  frailty,  and  faithful  promise  both 
to  mankind  and  to  the  lower  creatures.  "His 
tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works." 

It  has  not  seemed  necessary  formally  to  discuss 
the  view  which  regards  the  God  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, or  of  the  Pentateuch,  as  a  national  Deity, 
and  the  Hebrew  religion  as  but  one  among  the 
many  national  religions  of  ancient  heathendom. 
If  the  outline  here  traced  be  just,  this  theory  is 
refuted  at  every  step,  and  has  no  standing-room. 
It  is  contradicted  by  the  basis  laid  for  religion  in 
the  account  of  creation,  in  harmony  with  which 
is  the  constant  prominence  given  to  the  claims  of 
Jehovah  as  Creator  of  all  things;  by  the  express 
claim  of  sovereignty  and  ownership  over  all  na- 
tions made  in  those  very  passages  in  which  Israel 
is  said  to  be  for  certain  purposes  a  chosen  people, 
e.  g.,  Gen.  15:14,  16;  Exod.  9:29;  19:5;  Deut 


232   THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

7:6-8;  8:19,  20;  by  the  universal  views  of  divine 
providence  which  pervade  the  whole  history,  and 
are  grandly  summed  up  in  Psalm  107;  and  by  the 
world-wide  promises  which  ring  like  unearthly 
music  along  the  course  of  prophecy,  from  the 
promise  to  Abraham,  that  in  him  all  nations 
should  be  blessed,  to  such  declarations  of  univer- 
sal divine  sovereignty  and  such  invitations  to  all 
nations  to  worship  Jehovah  as  are  contained  in 
the  Psalms,  e.  g.,  Psa.  22:28;  24:1,2;  67:2-4;  95: 
3-6;  96:10;  100:1,  2.  The  intense  national  pride 
and  narrowness  of  the  Jews,  especially  as  the  time 
drew  near  for  their  ancestral  faith  to  take  its  des- 
tined form  as  the  universal  religion,  afford  a  mor- 
al demonstration  that  these  anticipations  in  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures  of  the  world-wide  phi- 
lanthropy of  the  New  owe  their  inspiration  to  a 
higher  source  than  Semitic  religiousness  or  He- 
brew genius. 

The  foregoing  review,  necessarily  brief  and 
condensed,  appears  not  simply  to  warrant  but  to 
compel  the  conclusion  that  when  the  most  has 
been  made  of  all  the  parallels  and  resemblances 
which  can  be  collected  from  the  sacred  writings 
of  other  ancient  religions,  the  religion  of  ancient 
Israel,  from  Abraham  to  Malachi  and  John  the 
Baptist,  stands  majestically  and  superhumanly 
alone. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  REUGION.  233 

Science  herself  may  well  be  interrogated  at 
the  bar  of  common  sense,  and  asked  to  give  ac- 
count of  phenomena  covering  so  vast  a  range  of 
human  experience,  and  of  such  surpassing  gran- 
deur and  unique  interest.  The  only  explanation, 
apart  from  that  embodied  in  the  Hebrew  records 
themselves,  seems  to  be  that  the  little  nation  of 
Israel,  inferior  in  all  other  respects  to  all  the 
great  nations  of  antiquity,  possessed  a  unique  re- 
ligious genius,  by  the  force  of  which  they  out- 
stripped in  this  one  field  the  whole  human  race, 
and  finally  gave  birth  to  the  universal  religion  of 
Christ.  This  hypothesis  will  not  bear  serious 
scrutiny.  In  the  first  place,  it  denies  the  facts  to 
be  explained,  and  substitutes  romance  for  philos- 
ophy. For  if  even  the  main  outlines  of  Hebrew 
history  are  to  be  trusted,  it  was  not  the  nation 
which  produced  the  religion,  but  the  religion 
which  produced  the  nation.  Secondly,  it  contra- 
dicts all  the  evidence  respecting  the  character  of 
the  Hebrew  people.  The  stern  rebuke  of  their 
great  lawgiver,  "  Ye  have  been  rebellious  against 
the  Lord  from  the  day  that  I  knew  you,"  Deut. 
9:24,  is  reechoed  by  the  whole  series  of  prophets. 
Two  of  the  lessons  of  the  Decalogue  the  Jews  in- 
deed learned  from  the  Babylonish  captivity,  and 
never  afterwards  forgot:  hatred  of  idols  and  rev- 
erence for  the  Sabbath.  But  their  religious  de- 


234  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  RELIGION. 

velopment  as  a  nation  during  the  following  five 
centuries  consisted  not  in  the  perfecting  of  Old 
Testament  teaching  and  the  raising  of  public  and 
private  life  to  the  level  it  required,  but  in  substi- 
tuting the  rabbi  for  the  prophet  and  encasing  re- 
ligious life  in  the  most  elaborate  crust  of  mechan- 
ical formulas  men  have  ever  invented  or  groaned 
under.  When  the  crowning  test  was  applied,  by 
the  appearance  of  Him  to  whom  all  the  prophets 
bore  witness,  the  religious  leaders  of  the  nation 
proved  yet  more  blind  than  the  multitude  whom 
they  cursed  as  ignorant  of  the  law.  They  could 
see  in  Jesus  neither  "  grace  and  truth  "  nor  "  the 
glory  as  of  the  Only-begotten  of  the  Father." 
They  condemned  the  holiest,  wisest,  greatest,  and 
best  of  Teachers  as  a  blasphemer  and  traitor,  and 
crucified  their  King.  But  in  the  hands  of  the 
crucified  One  the  religion  of  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures— the  religion  of  Abraham,  Moses,  David, 
Isaiah,  John  the  Baptist — freed  from  all  that  was 
national,  local,  temporary,  became  the  one  possi- 
ble universal  religion  for  mankind. 


THE 


BIBLE  TESTED; 

OR, 

IS  IT  THE  BOOK  FOE  TO-DAY  AND  FOR 
THE  WOELD? 


BY 

JACOB  CHAMBERLAIN,  M.  D.,  D.  D., 

ARGOT  MISSION,  INDIA. 


THE   BIBLE  TESTED. 

IS  IT  THE  BOOK  FOR  TO-DAY  AND  FOR 
THE  WORLD? 


THE  word  u  law, "  or  the  expression,  "  the 
law  of  the  Lord,"  is  used  in  two  senses  in  the 
Bible  :  the  first  confines  it  to  the  law  of  Moses. 

On  my  recent  journey  home  from  India,  after 
passing  up  through  the  length  of  the  Red  Sea, 
I  turned  aside  and  went  up  through  the  desert 
and  climbed  to  the  summit  of  Mt.  Sinai.  I  stood 
on  the  very  spot  where,  thirty-three  centuries  be- 
fore, amid  thunderings  and  lightnings,  that  law 
was  delivered  by  Jehovah  to  Moses.  I  looked 
out  on  that  beautiful  triangular  plain,  some  five 
miles  long  by  three  broad,  shut  in  by  high  moun- 
tains on  every  side  and  coming  up  to  the  foot  of 
the  almost  perpendicular  Sinai — "the  mount 
that  might  be  touched" — from  every  part  of 
which  plain  the  summit  of  the  mount  might  be 
seen,  and  the  cloud  resting  on  the  mount.  I  re- 
membered that,  when  that  law  was  delivered,  all 


238  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

of  the  worshippers  of  the  true  God,  Jehovah,  in 
the  then  world,  were  gathered  on  that  plain 
xvaiting  for  their  divine  orders — for  that  law  the 
observance  of  which  should  make  them  "a  pe- 
culiar people" — until  the  time  when  the  Naza- 
rene  should  appear,  and,  breaking  down  the  en- 
circling walls  of  exclusiveness,  should  gather  in 
all  nations,  even  us  Gentiles,  unto  himself;  and 
I  thought  how  all-important  was  it  that  the  law 
then  and  there  delivered  should  be  "perfect." 
And  it  is  perfect.  The  learning,  the  sagacity, 
the  ingenuity  of  all  succeeding  ages  have  utterly 
failed  to  produce  so  perfect  a  code  of  morals  as 
was  there  proclaimed.  This  Christianity's  worst 
enemies  have  always  admitted.  Ay,  the  "moral 
law"  successfully  challenges  the  admiration  of 
the  whole  world  as  a  perfect  law. 

But  the  expression,  "  the  law  of  the  Lord,"  is 
used  in  a  broader  sense.  It  means  the  whole  re- 
vealed will  of  God,  as  contained  in  the  book 
called  "the  Bible."  And  in  this  its  broadest 
sense  we  are  prepared  to  fling  down  the  gauntlet 
and  challenge  the  contradiction  of  the  world, 
while  we  declare  and  maintain  that  "the  law  of 
the  L,ord  is  perfect." 

I.  First,  take  it  as  a  literary  production. 
Where  do  we  find  such  sublime  poetic  imagery  as 
in  the  Bible  ?  where  such  exactness  and  accuracy 


THE   BIBLE   IN    INDIA.  239 

of  historic  detail,  as  evidenced  by  known  profane 
history,  and  more  and  more  by  each  successive 
Assyrian  and  Egyptian  discovery  ?  where  such 
majestic  soarings  of  prophetic  vision  ?  where  such 
faithful  portrayal  of  character  in  biography? 
where  such  intensity  and  sublimity  of  the  right- 
eous denunciation  of  wrong  ?  where  such  inimi- 
table pleadings  with  those  who  needlessly  are 
"weary  and  heavy  laden"?  where  such  winning 
portrayals  of  the  divine  life  in  man  as  in  the 
parables  that  Jesus  spoke  ? 

But  there  is  another  test  of  literary  produc- 
tions, which  but  few  books  indeed  can  stand. 
"  Buuyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress"  has  stood  that 
test  measurably  well ;  but  how  many  other  books 
are  there  that  can  ?  I  mean  the  test  of  transla- 
tion into  diverse  languages  of  dissimilar  people, 
of  different  modes  of  thought  and  varied  forms 
of  expressing  their  thoughts  and  conceptions. 
Shakespeare  translated  into  French,  we  are  told, 
is  emasculated;  how  if  translated  into  Chinese? 
How  would  Mrs.  Partington  sound  in  German? 
Longfellow  or  Tennyson  in  Hottentot?  Irving 
in  Arabic?  or  Whittier  in  Choctaw?  The  Bible 
has  stood  this  crucial  test  in  the  languages  of  all 
quarters  of  the  globe.  And  in  this  matter  I  speak 
from  some  experience  and  from  extended  observa- 
tion; for  having  been  engaged  for  years  in  the 


240  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

work  of  translating  the  Scriptures  from  the  He- 
brew into  one  of  the  most  polished  of  the  langua- 
ges of  the  East;  having,  in  my  journeys,  visited 
the  mission  stations  of  forty  different  missionary 
societies,  laboring  in  twenty-nine  different  langua- 
ges; and  having  conversed  with  many  of  those 
engaged  in  translating  the  Bible  into  those  lan- 
guages, as  well  as  with  others,  in  Europe  and 
America,  engaged  in  similar  work — I  know 
whereof  I  affirm  when  I  repeat  the  declaration 
that  the  Bible  has  stood  this  crucial  test  of  trans- 
lation in  the  languages  of  all  quarters  of  the 
globe.  From  Greenland  to  Patagonia,  in  the 
western  hemisphere;  from  Iceland  through  Eu- 
rope and  Asia  to  the  Japanese  and  the  Australians, 
in  the  eastern;  from  the  Copts  of  Egypt  to  the 
Kafirs  of  South  Africa;  from  the  South  Sea  Isl- 
ands of  the  Pacific  through  the  oceans  to  Mada- 
gascar, the  Bible  has  been  rendered  into  their 
languages  with  triumphant  success. 

Moses'  history  of  the  creation  and  of  the  early 
world;  Joshua's  wars  and  marches;  the  defeats 
and  victories  under  the  judges  and  kings;  David's 
penitential  prayers  and  psalms  of  praise;  Sol- 
omon's peerless  proverbs;  Isaiah's  splendid  im- 
agery; Jeremiah's  doleful  lamentations;  L,uke 
the  physician's  wonderful  life-pictures  of  Christ 
on  earth,  and  of  the  founding  of  the  early  Chris- 


THE;  BIBLE  IN  INDIA.  241 

tian  church;  Paul's  masterly  orations  at  Athens 
and  before  the  Sanhedrin  and  Felix,  and  his  doc- 
trinal epistles,  so  full  of  strong  meat;  John's  mar- 
vellous revelation — these  all  come  with  the  same 
force  and  adaptedness  and  sweetness  and  convic- 
tion in  each  of  the  two  hundred  and  eleven  lan- 
guages into  which  the  divine  book  has  been  al- 
ready translated,  and  witness  to  us  that,  in  this 
respect,  it  is  perfect. 

II.  Again,  take  the  Bible  in  its  adaptedness  to 
all  the  races  and  peoples,  as  well  as  languages,  of 
mankind.  And  in  this  respect  the  American 
Bible  Society  has  taken  its  full  share  in  putting 
the  Bible  to  the  proof,  for  it  has  scattered  it 
among  all  peoples.  Are  you  aware  how  cosmo- 
politan this  Society  is?  You  know  of  its  work 
at  home,  but  how  many  of  you  know  of  the  ex- 
tent of  its  work  abroad,  in  all  the  corners  of  the 
earth?  It  has  fallen  to  my  lot,  during  the  last 
score  of  years,  to  witness  some  of  the  workings  of 
the  Society  in  the  distribution  of  Scriptures  in 
widely-separated  localities,  among  people  speak- 
ing a  score  and  a  half  of  languages;  and  I  delight 
to  bear  my  testimony  to  this  phase  of  the  Society's 
work.  I  have,  myself,  expended  thousands  of 
dollars  of  its  funds  in  the  printing  and  circulation 
of  Scriptures  in  five  of  the  chief  languages  of 

India. 

ID 


242  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

I  have  seen  its  Bibles  read  and  loved  in  the 
cities  and  villages  and  plains  of  Madras;  ay,  in 
the  regions  there  so  recently  decimated  by  famine, 
many  a  convert  to  our  Jesus  has  delighted  to  for- 
get the  gnawings  of  hunger  while  with  his  dim 
eye  he  read  from  these  Scriptures  of  Him  who 
gives  to  his  children  the  bread  and  the  water  of 
life.  I  have  seen  it  read  with  rapture  all  night 
long,  in  the  native  kingdoms,  by  those  who  had 
that  day  for  the  first  time,  and  through  the  efforts 
of  this  Society,  heard  of  and  seen  the  Word  of  God. 

I  have  seen  it  read  and  loved  by  the  Teloogoos 
of  Rajahmundry  and  Ongole  and  Cuddapah  and 
Kurnool;  by  the  Canarese  people  of  Mysore;  by 
the  Tamils  of  North  and  South  Arcot  and  Sa- 
lem and  Coimbatore;  by  the  Badagas  of  the 
mountains;  by  the  Kois  of  the  Godavery  and 
the  Marathis  of  Bombay. 

The  Copts  of  Egypt  I  have  seen  gather  under 
the  shadow  of  the  Pyramids  to  read  from  the 
Arabic  Scriptures  the  story  of  Joseph  and  Moses 
and  Jesus  in  their  long-ago  sojourn  there. 

At  Beersheba  and  Hebron  and  Mt.  Moriah  we 
read  again  with  a  thrill  from  the  Scriptures  the 
story  of  Abraham  and  the  offering  up  of  Isaac. 

In  Jerusalem  on  Mt.  Zion  we  joined  an  assem- 
bly made  up  of  the  descendants  of  Ishmael  and  of 
Isaac,  of  Shem  and  of  Ham  and  of  Japheth,  while 


THE    BIBLE    IN    INDIA.  243 

from  a  translation   of  the   Bible,   made  at  this 
Society's  expense,  they  read  the  oracles  of  God. 

At  Shechem  and  Nazareth  we  found  its  Bibles. 

At  Sidon  the  noble  Christian  congregation 
were  reading  from  its  Scriptures  the  prophecy  of 
the  destruction  of  their  city  and  the  sister  city 
Tyre,  and  its  wonderful  fulfilment. 

At  Beirut  we  found  its  presses  busily  sending 
off  their  daily  fruitage  of  leaves  for  the  healing 
of  the  nations  to  the  150,000,000  who  speak  the 
Arabic  tongue. 

On  the  hills  over  Antioch  1,200  Christians 
gathered  in  one  assemblage  to  hear  what  this 
Bible  was  doing  in  India,  and  read  from  the  Bible 
in  the  Armenian  tongue  the  story  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  first  foreign  missionary  society  in  their 
ancient  city  more  than  1,800  years  before. 

In  Smyrna  and  other  cities  of  the  Seven 
Apocalyptic  Churches  we  found  them  trying  to 
learn  from  the  Scriptures  how  to  light  again  on 
their  ancient  candlesticks  the  candles  that  had 
long  gone  out. 

I  have  seen  the  workings  of  the  Scriptures  in 
Italy.  Rome  and  Florence,  and  Milan  and  Bo- 
logna and  Naples  cannot  shut  out  its  light,  and 
already  there  once  more  the  morning  star  is  rising. 

In  Calvin's  Geneva,  M.  Dardier  told  me  of  the 
wonderful  workings  of  the  Society's  Scriptures  in 


244  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

the  cantons  of  craggy  Switzerland  and  the  adja- 
cent parts  of  France.  In  the  gay  French- capital 
I  found  them  pointing  men  to  the  city  of  gold 
with  gates  of  pearl. 

Among  the  Esquimaux  and  Nascopies  of  Lab- 
rador I  found  again  the  Society's  Bibles,  and  saw 
how  the  gospel  for  the  tropics  is  the  gospel  for 
the  poles. 

In  the  colored  churches  of  North  and  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia  and  Alabama  and  Louisi- 
ana, I  have  seen  devout  Africans  poring  over  the 
pages  of  the  Bible,  and  have  realized  that  neither 
race  nor  color  need  diminish  aught  nor  add  unto 
the  perfect  teachings  of  God's  law. 

The  Russian  soldier  stirs  with  his  bayonet  the 
camp-fire  to-night,  that  by  its  light  he  may  read 
from  Scriptures  the  American  Bible  Society  has 
given  him  that  which  will  nerve  him  for  the 
morrow's  struggle  in  behalf  of,  as  he  believes,  his 
oppressed  fellow  Christians. 

The  South  American  republics  and  kingdom? 
are  looking  in  its  pages,  as  scattered  by  the  So- 
ciety's agents,  to  find  what  it  is  that  has  raised 
America  and  England  so  far  above  them. 

The  scattered  Islands  of  the  Seas  are  learning 
from  it  that  though  scattered  and  separated,  they 
belong  to  the  same  fold,  with  the  same  Shepherd, 
as  we  do.  "  The  isles  are  waiting  for  His  law." 


THE   BIBLE    IN   INDIA.  245 

In  Japan  the  Scriptures  teach  them  that  God 
rested  on  and  hallowed  one  day  in  seven;  and  al- 
ready has  the  Christian  Sabbath  displaced  and  re- 
placed their  multitudinous  and  variable  feast  days 
and  holy  days,  and  its  thousand  Christians  are 
now  on  their  bended  knees  thanking  that  God 
who  through  its  pages  issued  in  that  land  of  dark- 
ness the  fiat,  "Let  there  be  light." 

The  land  of  Sinim,  slumbering  through  ages, 
is  hearing  now,  through  the  Society's  instrumen- 
tality, and  obeying  the  divine  mandate,  "Awake, 
thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and 
Christ  shall  give  thee  light." 

Show  me,  if  you  can,  the  race  or  people  where 
the  Bibles  issued  by  this  Society  have  not  aroused 
the  conscience,  quickened  the  love,  stimulated 
the  seal,  dispelled  the  doubt,  comforted  the 
mourning,  cheered  the  dying,  among  the  scat- 
tered sons  of  the  first  and  of  the  second  Adam. 

Since  I  first  went  to  India,  the  Society  has  ex- 
pended more  than  one  and  a  quarter  millions  of 
dollars  in  gold  in  giving  the  Bible  to  the  races  of 
the  earth  outside  of  our  own  country.  It  is  be- 
cause of  this  cosmopolitan  work  that  I,  a  foreign 
missionary,  every  fibre  of  whose  existence  is 
wrought  up  in  the  missionary  work,  stand  up  on 
every  possible  occasion  to  advocate  the  claims  of 
this  Society  on  the  blood-bought  throng  of  Christ's 


246  .THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

sons  and  daughters.  I  would  not,  if  I  could,  turn 
all  the  streams  of  benevolence  into  the  treasuries 
of  our  foreign  missionary  societies — even  of  my 
own  Board.  The  Bible  must  be  translated  and 
printed  and  scattered  everywhere,  or  no  mission- 
ary work  could  be  done.  A  missionary  without  the 
Bible!  as  well  try  to  cook  without  fire  or  heat;  as 
well  try  to  sail  a  ship  without  water;  as  well  try 
to  propel  a  steamer  without  steam;  as  well  try  to 
breathe  without  air.  If  the  printing  and  benevo- 
lent distribution  of  the  Bible  cease  while  yet  the 
nations  are  arrayed  in  hostility  to  Christ,  then  let 
it  be  announced  to  the  world  that  the  soldiers  of 
Christ's  kingdom  have  laid  down  their  arms. 
L/et  it  cease,  and  all  the  powers  of  darkness  will 
rise  and  claim  the  victory  as  nearly  won.  Ay, 
the  very  imps  of  hell  will  hold  a  jubilee,  for  it  is 
darkness  that  they  love,  and  the  Bible  gives  light. 
III.  But  again,  take  the  Bible  as  an  engine  de- 
vised for  the  performance  of  a  certain  work,  and 
test  it  well  and  see  whether  it  does  that  work  or 
no.  The  Bible  contains  a  plan  devised  for  the  re- 
demption and  elevation  of  mankind.  Take  the 
Bible,  then,  as  an  engine  thus  devised  for  the 
accomplishment  of  this  specific  work,  and  test  it 
well  and  see  whether  it  does  that  work  or  no.  And 
it  is  to  this  view  of  the  subject  that  I  particularly 
ask  vonr  attention. 


THK   BIBLE   IN    INDIA.  247 

Is  this  old  Bible,  given  centuries  ago  among  the 
Jewish  people,  now  calculated  to  do  the  work  for 
which  it  was  designed?  or,  in  this  day  of  progress 
and  of  the  intermingling  of  nations,  do  we  find  it 
antiquated,  and  its  day  of  adaptedness  and  useful- 
ness passed  away  ?  This  is,  emphatically,  an  age 
not  alone  of  changes,  but  of  improvements.  Fast 
mail-trains  and  the  telegraph  have  taken  the  place 
of  the  old  mounted  mail-carrier,  with  his  mail-bags 
thrown  over  the  horse  upon  which  he  rode.  The 
four  and  six  horse  stage-coach  has  given  way  to 
palace  cars.  The  quiet  stitching  of  the  seamstress 
is  replaced  by  the  hum  of  the  sewing-machine. 
There  is  scarcely  a  piece  of  machinery,  of  any 
kind,  now  in  use  that  was  used  even  by  our  grand- 
fathers. New  books,  new  systems  of  sciences,  new 
methods  in  the  arts — all,  all  is  new.  Have  we 
made  a  mistake,  then,  in  holding  on  to  our  ' (  old 
Bible n  too  long?  If  so,  let  us  acknowledge  it 
like  men  and  try  to  replace  it  with  something  bet- 
ter ;  but  first  let  us  put  it  to  the  proof  and  see. 

Now,  in  testing  a  machine  or  engine,  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  try  it  in  all  the  different  circumstances 
in  which  it  is  to  be  employed,  especially  in  the 
worst.  For  example:  when  I  was  in  India,  dur- 
ing the  war  in  America,  the  Government  of  India 
sought  to  introduce  the  best  machinery  for  ginning 
an!  spinning  and  weaving  the  cotton  growing 


248  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

there.  A  proclamation  was  issued,  and  published 
in  every  country  where  machinery  was  made,  of- 
fering a  princely  premium  for  that  machinery 
that  should  best  do  the  work.  And  when,  after 
nearly  a  year  for  preparation,  the  machinery  was 
gathered  from  the  four  quarters  on  the  banks  of 
the  sacred  Ganges,  when  the  viceroy  and  his 
council  and  the  judges  had  assembled  to  test  it,  it 
was  tried  not  alone  with  the  cotton  grown  there 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  but  cotton  was 
brought  from  the  base  of  the  Himalaya  Moun- 
tains and  from  the  plains  of  Tinnevelly,  near 
Cape  Comorin,  from  the  hill  country  of  Berar, 
and  from  the  plains  of  Bellary  and  the  country 
about  Bombay;  and  the  machinery  that  best  did 
the  work  in  all,  the  long  staple  and  the  short,  the 
coarse  and  the  fine,  it  was  that  that  won  the  prize 
and  that  is  now  doing  the  work  in  India.  So  if 
an  ocean  steamer  be  launched,  it  must  be  tried  not 
alone  on  the  smooth  waters  of  the  bay  or  river  on 
whose  banks  it  was  constructed;  for  until  it  has 
crossed  the  ocean,  breasting  the  mountain  bil- 
lows in  a  storm,  no  one  can  tell  whether  after 
all  it  be  a  safe  vehicle  for  human  life.  So  with 
every  kind  of  machinery — it  must  be  tested  in 
the  worst  circumstances  in  which  it  will  be  called 
to  act. 

For  the  last  score  of  years  I  have  been  engaged 


THE    BIBLE    IN    INDIA.  249 

in  putting  the  Bible  to  just  such  a  test,  and  that 
in  the  most  unpropitious  circumstances. 

India  is  Satan's  stronghold.  Hindooism,  with 
its  handmaid  caste,  weaves  iron  fetters  around  its 
votaries.  With  much  of  truth  in  its  scriptures, 
the  Vedas,  it  has  degenerated  into  the  worst  of 
polytheism  and  idolatry;  with  its  defective  view  of 
God  and  man,  it  has  had  no  conservating,  eleva- 
ting influence  over  its  votaries.  The  Hindoos  are 
at  once  a  very  religious  and  a  grossly  immoral 
people.  Intelligent,  sharp,  quick-witted,  immu- 
table in  their  nature,  wedded  to  their  ancient  sys- 
tem, which  is  a  splendid  one  though  false,  the 
Brahminists  are  the  most  able  and  determined  ad- 
versaries of  what  they  term  the  "new  religion." 
If  the  Bible  will  work  in  India,  then  we  may 
safely  conclude  that  it  will  work  anywhere.  How, 
then,  does  it  work  in  India?  L,et  us  test  it  in 
various  ways  and  see. 

And  first:  does  this  "old  Bible,"  given  so  many 
centuries  ago  among  the  Jews,  describe  the  human 
heart  of  to-day  and  the  condition  of  man  in  dif- 
ferent lands  ?  or  is  it  antiquated  and  defective  in 
this  respect  ? 

On  a  certain  occasion,  some  fourteen  years  ago, 
I  went  into  a  native  city  in  India,  where  the  name 
of  Jesus  had  never  been  heard,  there  for  the  first 
time  to  show  them  and  give  them  these  Scrip- 


250  THE  BIBLE;  TESTED;  OR, 

tures,  and  to  preach,  to  them  of  Christ  and  his  sal- 
vation. As  an  introduction,  when  we  had  assem- 
bled an  audience  in  the  street,  I  asked  my  native 
assistant  to  read  the  first  chapter  of  Romans — the 
chapter  a  part  of  which  some  who  call  them- 
selves especially  liberal-minded  tell  us  is  too  black 
to  be  true;  that  chapter  that  describes  the  heart  of 
man  wandering  away  from  God  and  into  sin,  and 
conceiving  vile  conceptions  of  God,  and  then  wan- 
dering away  farther  until  at  last,  "though  they 
know  the  judgments  of  God,  that  they  which  do 
such  things  are  worthy  of  death,  they  not  only  do 
the  same,  but  have  pleasure  in  them  that  do  them;" 
the  chapter  which  many  tell  us  is  a  libel  upon  hu- 
man nature.  That  chapter  was  read.  The  most 
intelligent  man  in  the  audience,  a  Brahmin,  step- 
ped forward  and  said  to  me,  * '  Sir,  that  chapter 
must  have  been  written  for  us  Hindoos.  It  de- 
scribes us  exactly."  The  photograph  was  recogniz- 
ed. It  had  been  taken  centuries  before  and  among 
a  Jewish  people ;  but  the  artist  was  divine,  and  the 
heart  that  was  photographed  was  that  not  of  a 
J'ew,  but  of  a  man. 

On  another  occasion  I  went  into  another  city, 
there  also  for  the  first  time  to  proclaim  Christ  as 
the  way  of  life.  As  we  entered  the  native  town 
and  passed  up  the  main  street,  I  noticed  a  small 
Hindoo  temple,  built  upon  the  side  of  the  busiest 


THE   BIBLE   IN   INDIA.  251 

street,  with  its  doors  open  and  the  idols  in  at  the 
farther  end,  so  that  passers-by  could  worship  as 
they  went.  At  the  side  of  the  door  sat  the  Brah- 
min priest  of  the  temple  on  a  pedestal,  unclad 
down  to  the  waist — that  he  might  receive  the 
homage,  the  semi-divine  worship,  which  the  peo- 
ple were  wont  to  render  him — with  a  platter  by 
his  side  to  receive  their  offerings  as  they  went  in 
and  out  to  their  business  or  their  work.  I  noticed 
it  and  passed  on.  Going  up  the  main  street,  and 
looking  here  and  there  and  finding  no  better  place, 
we  came  back  to  this  temple;  and  as  I  politely 
asked  permission  of  the  Brahmin  to  address  an 
audience  from  the  steps  of  the  temple,  he  as  polite- 
ly gave  his  permission;  and  singing  a  song  to 
bring  the  people  together,  we  soon  had  the  street 
packed  with  those  who  wondered  what  we  had 
come  for,  and  I  preached  to  them.  I  took  for  my 
theme  ' ( the  character  of  any  being  whom  the  in- 
telligent mind  of  man  in  any  land  would  be  will- 
ing to  call  God;"  and  from  the  necessities  of  our 
natures  I  attempted  to  show  them  that  in  order 
to  call  any  being  God,  we  must  believe  him  to  be 
stronger  than  we  and  stronger  than  any  powers 
that  might  be  arrayed  against  us;  that  he  must  be 
omnipotent,  or  we  could  not  trust  him;  that  he 
must  be  wiser  than  we  and  wiser  than  any  intelli- 
gences that  might  be  combined  against  us;  that  he 


252  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

must  be  omniscient;  that  he  must  be  able,  in  all 
parts  of  his  dominion  at  the  same  time,  to  be  and  to 
notice  all  passing  events;  that  he  must  be  omnipres- 
ent; that  he  must  be  a  God  of  love,  a  God  of  jus- 
tice, 'and  so  on.  I  had  painted  to  them  the  charac- 
ter and  attributes  of  God  as  we  find  them  given  in 
our  Bible — not  telling  them  where  I  found  the  pic- 
ture, but  drawing  this  characterization  of  God  from 
the  necessities  of  the  soul  of  man.  The  intelligent 
men  in  the  audience  at  once  acknowledged  the 
picture  to  be  a  correct  one,  as  I  went  on  from 
point  to  point,  and  admitted  what  I  said  to  be 
true.  At  last,  completing  the  picture,  I  said  to 
them,  ' '  Now,  who  is  God  and  where  is  God  ?' ' 
The  Brahmin  priest  sitting  there  on  his  pedestal, 
seeing  how  intently  the  audience  of  his  worship- 
pers were  listening  to  my  description  of  God,  so 
different  from  that  enshrined  in  the  temple  at  my 
side,  and  seeing  at  a  glance,  with  his  keen  mind, 
that  if  this  description  of  God  was  accepted  as  true 
his  employment  was  gone,  seeking  to  create  a 
diversion,  straightened  himself  up,  and  with  his 
finger  drawing  a  line  around  his  stomach,  he  said, 
14  Sir,  this  is  my  God;  when  this  is  full,  my  God 
is  propitious;  when  this  is  empty,  my  God  is 
angry.  Only  give  me  enough  to  eat  and  drink, 
and  that  is  all  the  God  I  want."  Turning  to  this 
same  old  Book,  I  gave  him  that  scathing  denim- 


THE    BIBLE    IN    INDIA.  253 

elation  of  Paul  of  those  ' ( whose  God  is  their  belly, 
whose  glory  is  in  their  shame,  and  whose  end  is 
destruction. ' '  And  then  turning  again  to  the  au- 
dience and  reminding  them  of  the  pure  and  holy 
character  that  I  had  described,  I  told  them  that 
4 '  this  poor,  miserable  wretch  here  is  willing  to 
call  his  belly  his  God."  Amid  the  sneers  and 
scorn  of  his  own  worshippers  he  sprang  from  his 
pedestal,  slunk  around  the  corner  of  the  temple, 
and  vanished  down  a  side  street.  And  oh,  how 
the  audience  listened  while  I  described  to  them 
Him  in  whom  all  the  fulness  of  this  Godhead  was 
manifested  bodily,  even  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the 
Saviour  of  all  of  them,  in  all  the  world,  that  will 
believe  in  him  ! 

On  another  occasion  I  was  reading  from  the 
seventh  chapter  of  Romans  that  declaration  of 
Paul  of  the  power  of  sin  over  us  where  he  says, 
u  When  I  would  do  good,  evil  is  present  with  me, 
and  the  good  which  I  would  I  do  not,  but  the  evil 
which  I  would  not,  that  I  do. "  As  I  read  it  the 
most  intelligent  man  in  my  audience  spoke  up, 
saying,  "  That  is  it !  that  is  it !  That  is  exactly 
what  is  the  matter  with  us  Hindoos.  Now,  does 
your  Book  tell  us  how  we  can  get  rid  of  that  evil 
disposition,  and  do  the  good  we  would  and  avoid 
doing  the  evil  that  we  would  not?"  How  gladly, 
from  this  same  old  Book,  did  I  point  them  to  Him 


254  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

who  can  create  a  new  heart  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  us;  who  can  give  ns  not  only  the 
desire,  but  the  power,  to  do  good:  u  For  I  can  do 
all  things  through  Christ  who  strengtheneth  me. ' ' 

On  another  occasion  and  in  a  different  city  I  read 
the  description  in  the  forty-fourth  chapter  of  Isaiah 
of  the  making  and  worshipping  of  images.  When 
I  had  completed  the  reading,  a  sharp  man  in  the 
audience,  a  Brahmin,  stepped  out  and  said,  "Now, 
sir,  we  have  caught  you.  You  told  us  that  this 
was  an  old  book,  given  long  ago  in  another  part  of 
the  world  to  tell  us  how  we  might  find  God,  and 
how,  worshipping  him,  we  might  attain  to  peace 
with  him;  but,  sir,  that  that  you  have  just  read 
you  have  written  since  you  came  here  and  saw 
how  we  Hindoos  managed  it."  The  photograph 
once  more  was  recognized. 

But  again,  can  this  Book  be  understood  by 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  learned  and  ignorant? 
Can  this  Bible,  that  was  given  to  a  people  prepared 
through  generations  by  a  special  training,  and 
standing  on  a  very  different  moral  plane  from  the 
Hindoos  of  the  present  day — this  Book,  with  its 
pure  and  holy  doctrines,  its  strange  though  beauti- 
ful and  simple  plan  of  salvation — can  it  be  under- 
stood by  those  Hindoos  who  have  sunken  through 
centuries  of  moral  pollution  ?  Can  it  be  understood 
so  as  to  affect  their  lives  and  their  character  ? 


THE    BIBLE   IN    INDIA. 

Come  with  me  to  a  little  town  150  miles  to 
northwest  of  my  station  at  Mudnapilly,  in  India. 
Some  fifteen  years  ago  there  lived  there  a  Hindoo, 
an  unlettered  man — he  could  simply  read  and 
write,  and  that  was  all — who  felt  the  burden  of  sin 
and  desired  relief.  He  had  tried  all  that  his  sys- 
tem taught  him,  and  still  found  no  peace  of  con- 
science. There  came  the  time  of  the  annual  draw- 
ing of  the  idol  car  (usually  called  the  car  of  Jug- 
gernaut) in  a  city  some  thirty  miles  away,  and 
this  man,  mourning  over  his  sin,  went  there,  for 
they  told  him  if  he  would  engage  in  the  ceremo- 
nies there  and  join  in  the  drawing  of  the  car,  the 
burden  of  sin  would  be  gone  and  he  could  find  re- 
lief. He  went  there.  The  first  day  passed,  and 
the  second  day  of  the  festivities  was  nearly  through. 
That  night  it  would  close,  and  he  felt  yet  the  bur- 
den of  sin.  He  knew  that  he  had  not  got  relief. 
He  saw  standing  in  the  crowd  a  man  with  a  book 
wrapped  in  his  garments;  he  saw  the  end  sticking 
out,  and  asked,  u  Stranger,  what  book  is  that  you 
have  got  there  ?' '  Said  he,  c '  They  call  it  the  Kotta 
Nibandana? » (the  New  Testament).  ( '  What  is  that  ?'  > 
"Why,  they  say  it  is  the  Sattya  Veda"  (the  True 
Veda,  as  we  term  the  Bible  in  India,  in  distinc- 
tion from  their  Vedas,  which  we  do  not  acknowl- 
edge as  true).  "  Have  you  read  it?"  "  No,  I 
have  not."  "What  does  it  tell  about,  anyhow ?" 


256  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

4 *  Why,  they  say  that  it  tells  us  how  to  get  rid  of 
sin."  "Does  it?  Will  you  sell  it?"  uYes." 
1 '  How  much  will  you  take  for  it  ?"  u  Well,  give 
me  half  a  rupee' '  (twenty-five  cents).  ' l  All  right. ' ' 
He  took  out  the  money  and  gave  it  to  the  man, 
and  took  the  book,  wrapped  it  up,  put  it  under 
his  arm,  and  went  away.  When  he  got  home  he 
opened  it  at  the  first  chapter  of  Matthew,  and 
stumbled  and  tumbled  down  over  those  jaw-break- 
ing names  in  the  genealogy  of  Christ,  worse  for  a 
Hindoo  than  they  are  for  us  to  pronounce.  He 
thought  that  after  all  there  was  not  going  to  be 
anything  in  the  book  that  he  could  understand, 
and  that  he  had  lost  his  money;  but  he  got 
through  at  last,  and  came  to  the  story  of  the  mirac- 
ulous birth  of  the  child  Jesus;  that  he  could  un- 
derstand. He  read  on,  and  read  the  story  of  His 
wonderful  childhood  and  His  marvellous  life,  His 
miraculous  deeds  and  the  messages  of  mercy  that 
He  gave  to  all  around  Him;  and  then,  when  he 
was  beginning  to  think  that  He  must  be  the  one 
that  should  redeem  all  lands,  he  came  to  the  story 
where  He  was  killed  and  nailed  upon  a  cross.  Oh, 
it  was  all  up  then,  he  thought;  but  he  read  on 
amid  his  tears.  He  read  of  His  lying  in  the  grave, 
and  then  of  that  wonderful  coming  forth  again 
from  the  grave,  and  of  the  scene  when  He  appeared 
to  His  disciples;  and  with  astonishment  he  read 


THE   BIBLE   IN   INDIA.  257 

how  on  Mt.  Olivet,  parting  the  clouds,  He  ascend- 
ed to  heaven;  and  then  he  turned  over  and  read 
again  in  the  next  evangelist,  in  fewer  words,  the 
story  of  the  same  life.  Then  he  read  on  in  a  third 
evangelist  that  same  story,  that  is  never  repeated 
too  often — Luke's  graphic  life-picture  of  Christ  on 
earth.  Then  he  came  to  the  fourth  evangelist, 
and  there  he  read  of  the  divine  sonship  of  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Word  that  became  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us;  and  he  learned  there  of  our 
connection  with  Christ,  the  branch  with  the  vine, 
how  He  would  remain  with  us;  then  he  read  the 
story  of  the  founding  of  the  early  Christian  church. 
That  gave  him  more  light.  He  read  the  doctrinal 
epistles,  and  feeling  the  burden  of  sin  as  he  did, 
he  did  not  stumble  over  those  hard  doctrines  as 
some  on  this  side  of  the  water  do.  He  read  that 
story,  that  wonderful  revelation  of  the  New  Jeru- 
salem coming  down  from  heaven  out  of  God,  the 
home  of  all  those  that  believe  in  Jesus,  when  they 
shall  arise  and  meet  him. , 

Ah,  that  was  the  book  for  him  !  He  read  in 
the  book  that  they  were  not  to  forget  the  assem- 
bling of  themselves  together  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  as  the  manner  of  some  is — of  some  perhaps 
in  this  country  too — and  on  the  first  day  of  their 
week,  which,  singularly,  synchronizes  with  our 
Christian  Sabbath,  he  gathered  his  neighbors  in 

17 


258  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

liis  own  house  to  hear  him  read  from   l '  the  won- 
derful Book. ' '   He  taught  his  wife  to  read,  a  strange 
thing  for  a  Hindoo  to  do,  as  they  never  used  to 
teach  their  women  to  read ;  but  he  taught  her  to 
read  in  order  that  she  might  be  able  to  read  from 
4 'the   Book."     He   learned   in  that,    "When   ye 
pray  thus  shall  ye  say,  '  Our  Father  which  art  in 
heaven;'  "  and  as  they  assembled  thus  on   each 
Sabbath  day  they  joined,  after  reading  the  Word, 
in  repeating  that  prayer.     Some  years  passed  by 
and  the  man  died.    When  he  died  he  told  his  wife 
that  they  must  not  burn  his  body  as  the  Hindoos 
are  wont  to  do,  but  bury  it,  for  Christ  was  buried; 
that  they  must  not  perform  any  heathen  ceremony 
over  his  grave,  but  read  from  uthe  Book"   and 
repeat   uthe  prayer,"  and  leave  him  there  with 
God;  for  as  Christ  arose  from  the  dead,  so  would 
he  some  day  arise  and  meet  that  Christ  in  heaven. 
His  wife  kept  up  the  reading  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week  to  the  people   from  this  book.     Years 
more  passed  by.     At  last  there  came  two  mission- 
aries into  a  village  some  fifteen  miles  from  this 
place.   They  were  preaching  there  to  the  people,  as 
they  supposed  for  the  first  time  that  they  had  heard 
of  Christ  and  his  salvation,  when  two  men  that 
happened  to  be  there  in  the  market-place  stepped 
forward  and  said,  u  Why,  sirs,  what  you  say  is  ex- 
actlv  what  the  man  of  '  the  Book '  down  at  our 


THE   BIBLE   IN   INDIA.  259 

village  used  to  teach. ' '  They  asked  about  it  and 
learned  the  story.  They  went  down  there,  and 
found  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  little  church 
of  Jesus  Christ  established.  It  was  the  Book  that 
had  done  it.  They  had  not  received  baptism  nor 
the  Lord's  Supper,  to  be  sure,  but  they  had  that 
life  in  their  hearts  that  was  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  The  Book  had  shown  that  it  could 
be  understood  and  could  produce  its  effect. 

That  was  among  the  lowly;  how  among  the 
higher  classes  that  have  the  Vedas  with  their 
purer  teachings,  the  Brahmins  of  India  ?  How  does 
this  Bible  work  among  them  ?  Is  it  adapted  to 
meet  their  felt  wants  ? 

Some  fifteen  years  ago  I  took  a  long  journey  of 
five  months  through  a  native  kingdom  that  had 
never  before  been  traversed,  so  far  as  I  could  learn, 
by  any  missionary,  and  where  the  Scriptures  had 
never  been  circulated.  I  took  the  journey,  an  ex- 
ploring and  Bible  distributing  journey,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  American  Bible  Society.  We  were 
warned  that  we  should  meet  with  dangers  and 
difficulties.  We  did  meet  with  them  abundantly; 
but  on  the  way  the  Master  gave  us  such  cheering 
signs  of  his  presence  that  we  were  willing  to  go 
on.  We  had  been  warned  not  to  go  because  of 
the  danger,  and  were  told  that  we  would  never  all 
of  us  get  home  alive;  but  I  read  in  my  commis- 


260  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

sion,  uGo  ye  info  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature. ' '  It  did  not  say,  ' '  ex- 
cept Hyderabad;"  and  believing  my  commission 
was  to  be  carried  out,  I  went,  taking  with  me 
four  native  assistants.  I  well  remember  one  Satur- 
day, when  we  had  attempted  to  cross  a  wide  river 
in  basket-boats,  and  had  been  swept  down  the 
stream  three  miles  in  crossing.  At  last  we  had 
gained  the  shore,  but  we  had  been  delayed  so  long 
that  it  was  midnight,  Saturday  night,  before  we 
reached  the  town  where  we  wished  to  spend  the 
night.  Camping  outside  the  city,  we  spent  the 
rest  of  the  night.  Sabbath  morning  in  our  camp 
we  held  our  prayer-meeting,  myself  and  four  na- 
tive preachers  and  attendants,  reading  from  the 
Word  and  talking  over  the  power  and  goodness  of 
Christ;  and  in  the  afternoon  we  thought  that 
though  we  had  intended  to  rest  that  Sabbath,  we 
must  go  out  to  the  bazar  and  tell  the  people  of 
this  divine  word.  We  went.  A  large  audience 
assembled  around  us.  We  preached  to  them  of 
Christ  and  his  salvation.  We  distributed  Scrip- 
tures and  tracts  among  them,  and  came  back  be- 
fore sundown  to  our  camp,  intending  to  lie  down 
to  rest  very  early,  as  we  must  start  on  our  jour- 
ney at  half-past  four  the  next  morning,  as  was  our 
wont;  when  ere  the  sun  had  set  a  group  of  men 
came  out  of  the  town  with  books  in  their  hands, 


BIBJJ<:    IN    INDIA.  26 1 

saying  to  us,  u  Sirs,  this  is  such  wonderful  news 
that  you  have  told  us,  wont  you  please  come  back 
and  talk  to  us  some  more  about  it?  The  idea  of  a 
way  of  getting  rid  of  sin  without  ourselves,  by 
the  help  of  a  divine  Redeemer!  It  is  wonderful ! 
Please  come  back  and  talk  to  us  some  more  about 
it."  We  went  back.  The  market-place  was  cov- 
ered with  India  rugs  and  Persian  rugs,  and  with 
pillows  for  us  to  sit  upon,  for  they  said  they 
wanted  us  to  talk  longer  than  we  could  stand  to 
talk.  There  were  stakes  driven  in  the  ground- 
floor,  with  little  native  lamps  on  them  to  light 
when  it  should  grow  dark,  for  they  said  they 
wanted  us  to  talk  long  after  it  was  dark.  They  kept 
us  reading  and  talking  until  ten  o'clock  at  night, 
and  would  not  let  us  go.  When  at  last  we  told 
them  that  they  must  allow  us  to  rest,  for  we  were 
very  weary  and  had  to  start  early  in  the  morning, 
they  allowed  us  to  leave  and  we  went  and  lay 
down  to  rest. 

At  half-past  four  in  the  morning  we  had  arisen, 
our  carts  were  packed,  and  we  were  just  starting, 
when  out  came  a  deputation  from  the  town  with 
books  in  their  hands  with  the  leaves  turned  down 
here  and  there;  for  they  said  they  had  been  read- 
ing the  books  all  night  long,  for  they  were  sure 
they  would  never  have  another  chance  to  ask 
questions  about  them;  and  it  was  such  strange 


262  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

news,  and  so  good  if  true,  they  wanted  to  be  sure 
that  they  understood  all  about  it,  and  they  had 
come  to  ask  some  questions  before  I  started.  I  said 
to  my  native  assistants,  "  You  go  on.  Three  miles 
north  of  here,  I  understand,  is  the  town  of  Peberi. 
As  you  are  walking  and  I  have  a  horse,  you  go 
on,  and  I  will  stop  and  answer  these  questions, 
and  then  canter  on  as  rapidly  as  I  can  and  over- 
take you.  If  you  get  there  before  I  do,  go  into 
the  town  and  offer  the  Scriptures  and  tracts  for 
sale."  They  went  on;  I  stopped  and  answered 
the  questions.  They  asked  a  great  many  earnest 
questions.  When  I  attempted  to  mount  my  horse, 
they  put  their  hands  on  my  shoulder  and  said, 
u  No,  sir;  you  cannot  go  until  you  answer  some 
more  inquiries."  I  answered  a  few  more  and 
tried  to  spring  on  my  horse  again  and  go  on,  as  I 
did  not  like  to  leave  my  native  assistants  to  en- 
counter danger  alone,  if  there  were  danger,  and 
wished  to  hasten  on.  But  they  said,  uNo,  sir; 
answer  some  more  questions;  don't  go  yet."  I 
stayed  three-quarters  of  an  hour  and  then  went 
forward  to  join  my  assistants.  I  cantered  on  as 
rapidly  as  I  could,  and  as  I  approached  the  town 
of  Peberi,  which  was  a  walled  town  with  gates, 
I  saw  my  native  assistants  coming  away  from  the 
town  accompanied  by  some  natives.  Speaking 
in  the  Tamil  language,  which  was  not  understood 


THE   BIBLE   IN   INDIA.  263 

by  the  people  there,  I  said  to  them,  "  Would  not 
they  let  you  go  into  the  town?  Would  not  they  let 
you  preach  ?  Could  you  not  dispose  of  any  books  ?' ' 
41  Yes,  sir,"  said  they,  "we  preached  to  a  most  in- 
tensely-interested audience,  and  when  we  offered 
our  book  and  tracts  for  .sale  they  bought  every 
one  of  them;  we  have  n't  a  single  one  left.  They 
paid  for  them  all  and  wanted  more.  We  told  them 
you  had  your  saddle-bags  full  of  books,  and  they 
have  come  out  here  to  meet  you  and  buy  more 
books." 

Turning  to  them,  I  said  (in  their  own  lan- 
guage, the  Teloogoo),  "Brothers,  I  have  plenty  of 
books — you  shall  have  all  you  want.  But  first 
let  us  go  back  into  the  town,  and  I  will  tell  you 
some  more  about  this  wonderful  news."  We 
went  back  into  the  to\vn.  I  saw  that  they  were 
the  chief  men  of  the  place.  There  in  the  square 
before  the  gate  was  the  platform  for  the  elders  of 
the  city  to  sit  upon  and  administer  the  affairs  of 
the  town,  as  in  ancient  Jewish  times.  They  es- 
corted me  to  that  platform  and  wished  me  to  sit 
with  them.  As  I  preferred  to  stand  and  talk,  so 
that  I  could  be  heard  by  a  larger  audience,  they 
said  they  would  stand  too,  for  they  did  not  wish 
to  sit  while  their  teacher  was  standing — it  would 
not  be  polite.  Standing  there,  I  proclaimed  to 
them  again  the  gospel  of  eternal  life  through 


264  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

Jesus  Christ.  When  I  had  done  speaking,  I  took 
my  saddle-bags  from  the  horse  and  offered  them 
the  books,  and  at  once  there  was  a  rush  for  them. 
I  gave  out  book  after  book,  and  •still  they  pressed 
upon  me  until  every  book  was  gone,  and  then 
there  were  forty  hands  held  out  over  the  shoul- 
ders of  those  before  them,  with  money  in  them, 
and  they  said,  "Here,  sir,  take  what  money  you 
please,  only  give  me  a  book  that  tells  about 
the  divine  Father  that  you  have  told  us  about." 
"Give  me  a  book  that  tells  about  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  salvation."  "  Give  me  a  book  that  tells 
about  heaven  and  how  I  can  get  there."  "Take 
what  money  you  please,  only  do  give  me  a  book." 
I  told  them,  "  Brothers,  I  am  very  sorry  I  did  not 
know  there  were  so  many  educated  men  here,  and 
that  so  many  books  would  be  wranted.  I  have  a 
cart-load  of  books  that  have  gone  on  in  advance, 
which  I  might  have  stopped  for  you  to  buy  all  you 
want."  They  said,  "  How  far  has  the  cart  gone?" 
Judging  from  the  time,  I  said  that  it  must  have 
got  about  three  miles.  They  said,  "  If  we  go  on 
and  overtake  the  cart,  will  you  stop  it  and  let  us 
buy  the  books?"  "  Certainly,"  said  I.  They  at 
once  appointed  a  deputation  to  go  on  and  buy  the 
books.  Five  were  appointed.  As  I  had  been 
talking,  I  particularly  noticed  two  who  stood  upon 
the  platform  almost  in  front  of  me — a  Brahmin 


THE   BIBLE    IN    INDIA.  265 

with  venerable  white  hair  and  noble  brow,  a  very 
courteous  and  intelligent  gentleman,  and  his  son, 
as  I  judged  from  his  countenance,  standing  at  his 
side.  They  had  interrupted  me  now  and  then, 
as  I  was  preaching,  saying  to  me,  ' '  Wait  a  mo- 
ment, sir;  wont  you  explain  that  point  a  little 
further?  This  is  such  strange  news,  we  want  to  be 
sure  that  we  get  it  exactly  right. ' '  I  would  explain 
the  point  and  then  go  on,  and  soon  they  would  stop 
me  again,  asking  intelligent  questions,  anxious  to 
understand  everything  I  said.  They  were  among 
the  deputation  that  were  appointed  to  go  forward. 
The  people  put  money  in  their  hands,  each  one 
telling  them,  "  Do  n't  you  forget  to  buy  me  a 
book. "  "  Buy  me  a  book  that  tells  of  Jesus  and 
his  love."  "Buy  me  one  of  those  books  that  tell 
about  the  Creator,  the  divine  Father  that  loves 
us."  "Get  me  a  book  that  tells  how 'I  can  get 
rid  of  my  load  of  sin."  So  they  commissioned 
them  and  sent  them.  We  went  out  of  the  gate 
of  the  city  and  turned  into  the  pathway  where  my 
carts  had  gone — native  carts  with  wooden  wheels, 
drawn  by  young  buffaloes. 

We  walked  on  for  a  time,  they  asking  earnest 
questions  and  I  answering  them,  when  they  said, 
"Sir,  we  are  going  no  faster  than  the  carts  are; 
would  you  mind  cantering  on  to  overtake  the  carts 
and  stop  them ;  and  then  you  must  talk  to  us  some 


266  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

more."  I  put  spurs  to  my  horse  and  rode  on.  I 
had  gone  perhaps  a  mile  and  a  quarter,  and  got 
into  the  thick  jungle  that  intervened  between 
that  town  and  the  next  village,  and  was  passing 
up  a  little  tortuous  cart-track  through  the  jungle, 
when  I  heard  the  steps  of  a  powerful  horse  ap- 
proaching me  from  the  rear.  I  had  been  warned 
that  in  just  such  a  place  as  that  I  would  be  assas- 
sinated. Thinking  it  always  safest  to  face  danger, 
if  there  be  danger,  I  stopped  my  horse,  turned 
around,  and  waited  for  the  approach.  Soon,  around 
a  bend  in  the  road,  I  saw  a  powerful  Arab  charger 
coming,  with  saddle  and  bridle  bedecked  with 
ornaments  of  silver  and  gold.  Its  rider  had  a 
turban  with  gold-lace  trimmings,  and  wore  a 
necklace  of  pearls  around  his  neck,  with  a  jacket 
of  India  satin  interwoven  with  threads  of  metallic 
gold.  He  rode  rapidly  on,  and  apparently  was 
about  passing  me  when  he  saw  me,  and  pulling 
up  his  horse  almost  on  to  his  haunches,  he  said, 
"Are  you  the  man  that  has  been  in  my  town  this 
morning  with  this  strange  doctrine?"  I  said,  u  I 
have  been  in  the  town  of  Peberi,  sir."  We  had 
been  told  that  this  town  was  the  summer  residence 
of  a  petty  Rajah,  a  feudatory  of  the  Nizam  of 
Hyderabad,  but  that  at  that  season  of  the  year 
the  Rajah  was  at  his  other  capital.  He  said  to 
me — for  it  \vas  the  Rajah  himself — "I  came  in 


THE   BIBLE   IN   INDIA.  267 

late  last  night  from  my  other  capital.  I  suppose 
the  people  did  not  know  I  was  there.  I  got  in  late 
last  night  or  early  this  morning,  and  we  were 
not  stirring  when  your  people  came  so  early.  I 
suppose  those  were  your  men  that  came  about 
sunrise  with  the  books;  but  some  of  my  courtiers 
were  stirring  and  bought  some  of  the  books  and 
brought  them  to  the  palace,  and  we  were  so  busy 
reading  the  books  that  we  did  not  know  there 
was  any  second  gathering  in  the  streets.  I  wish 
I  had  known  it;  I  would  have  sent  out  and  asked 
you  to  come  to  the  palace  to  tell  us  the  news  there; 
but  when  you  had  gone  they  brought  some  larger 
books,  saying  that  the  white  man  himself  had  been 
there  and  given  them  those  books,  and  I  was  so 
anxious  to  see  you  that  I  ordered  my  swiftest 
horse,  and  I  have  outridden  all  my  courtiers,  as 
you  see,  to  overtake  you.  Now,  tell  me  all  about 
it.  Is  it  true?  Is  there  a  Saviour  that  can  save 
us  from  our  sin ?"  We  rode  on  together,  I  on  a  little 
scraggy  country  pony  that  had  cost  me  thirty  dol- 
lars, looking  up  to  him  on  his  magnificent  Arab 
charger  worth  a  thousand,  and  as  I  trotted  along 
talking  with  him  I  could  not  help  thinking  of 
Philip  and  the  eunuch ;  and  I  tried  as  earnestly,  I 
believe,  as  Philip  did  to  tell  my  companion  of 
Him  of  whom  Moses  in  the  law  and  the  prophets 
did  speak — even  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Saviour 


263  THE  BIBI«E  TESTED;  OR, 

of  all  them  In  all  the  world  that  would  believe 'in 
him. 

We  overtook  the  cart.  "Now,"  said  he,  "let 
me  have  a  copy  of  every  book  you  have.  I  don't 
care  what  you  ask;  I  will  pay  for  them."  One 
box  after  another  was  opened.  He  took  out  a 
book  about  the  size  of  a  small  pulpit  Bible,  and 
said  he,  "What  book  is  that?"  "That  is  the 
Holy  Bible,  the  Satya  Veda,  or  True  Veda,  in 
the  Teloogoo  language" — the  language  in  which 
we  were  conversing.  "Give  me  that."  Down 
it  went  on  the  ground.  He  took  up  another,  of 
one-third  the  size.  "What  is  that?"  "That  is 
the  New  Testament  in  the  Canarese  language." 
"Give  me  that;"  and  down  it  went.  "What  is 
that?"— taking  up  another.  "That  is  the  New 
Testament  in  the  Hindoostani  language."  "Give 
me  that.  What  is  that?"  "That  is  the  New 
Testament  in  the  Tamil  language."  "Give  me 
that.  What  is  that?"  "That  is  the  New  Tes- 
tament in  the  Marathi  language.  But,"  said  I, 
"you  don't  want  all  those,  for  this  large  one 
contains  the  whole  thing.  These  others  contain 
part,  the  best  part  to  be  sure,  of  the  large  one, 
in  the  different  languages.  But  it  is  the  same 
thing,  verse  for  verse  and  word  for  word,  only 
that  each  is  in  a  different  language.  You  know 
the  Teloogoo  language  best.  If  you  take  the  large 


THE    BIBLE   IN    INDIA.  269 

one  in  that  language  you  have  the  whole;"  for  I 
wished  to  save  some  of  these  for  use  further  on  in 
my  journey.  uNo,"  said  he;  "if  you  were  to 
be  here  so  that  I  could  ask  questions,  that  large 
one  would  be  enough  for  me;  but  you  are  not  go- 
ing to  be  here,  so  I  shall  have  no  one  to  ask  ques- 
tions of,  and  I  will  take  it  and  read  it  in  the 
Teloogoo  language,  and  I  will  perhaps  not  quite 
understand  it;  then  I  will  take  it  in  the  Canarese 
language,  for  I  can  read  that  just  as  well,  and  it 
will  be  a  little  differently  expressed,  and  by  com- 
paring the  two  I  will  understand  it.  If  not,  then 
I  will  read  it  in  the  Hindoostani  language,  or 
in  the  Marathi  or  Tamil  language,  and  com- 
paring the  four  or  five,  I  shall  be  able  to  under- 
stand it  all.  I  do  n't  care  what  you  ask  for  them, 
only  let  me  have  the  books.  I  will  pay  for  them. ' ' 
So  he  took  them. 

In  the  meantime  the  deputation  came  up.  I 
found  that  the  Brahmin  whom  I  had  noticed  so 
particularly  was  the  prime  minister  of  the  Rajah, 
his  general  manager,  or  Mantri,  as  they  call  it  in 
India,  and  the  son  was  being  educated  to  succeed 
him  in  office.  They  all  asked  earnest  questions, 
and  kept  me  answering  question  after  question  and 
explaining  the  books  for  an  hour  and  three-quar- 
ters, there  in  the  road,  before  they  would  allow 
me  to  hitch  on  my  oxen  and  pursue  my  journey. 


270  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

When  they  had  bought  and  paid  for  their  books, 
and  at  last  had  consented  that  I  should  pursue  my 
journey,  I  bade  them  good-by.  But  as  we  went 
on  our  way  we  could  not  help  thinking  of  them 
and  their  earnest  questions,  and  wondering  wheth- 
er the  words  thus  scattered  had  done  any  good. 
We  journeyed  on,  however,  and  at  last  after  five 
months  we  came  around  to  our  homes,  stricken 
down  by  disease,  to  be  sure,  that  we  had  contracted 
in  those  jungles,  but  all  of  us  were  alive.  We 
came  back  to  our  homes,  and  still  we  could  not 
forget  those  people.  We  wondered  whether  in 
that  town,  where  they  had  so  gladly  met  us  and 
heard  us  preach  Christ,  there  would  be  any  fruit 
from  the  seed  we  had  scattered.  Three  years 
passed  by — years  of  sickness  with  me  resulting 
from  that  journey.  We  were  still  thinking  of  and 
praying  for  them,  when  the  L,ord  allowed  us  to 
hear  news  from  them.  A  traveller  came  that  way — 
not  a  chance  traveller;  nothing  ever  happens  by 
chance.  God  ordered,  for  the  strengthening  of  my 
faith,  and  perhaps  yours,  that  a  traveller  should 
come  down  through  that  unfrequented  way,  and 
that  he  should  be  overtaken  by  night  at  that 
very  town  of  Peberi.  He  was  a  half-caste — half 
Portuguese  and  half  Hindoo.  He  stopped  in  the 
rest-house  built  for  travellers,  by  the  gate  of  the 
city.  In  the  evening  that  very  Mantri,  the  Rajah's 


THE   BIBLE   IN   INDIA.  2/1 

prime  minister,  hearing  that  there  was  a  stran- 
ger in  the  town,  came  out  to  meet  him,  and  said 
he,  "Stranger,  you  seem  to  have  come  from  a 
distance;  do  you  know  anything  of  the  people 
they  call  Christians?"  "Yes,  I  am  one  myself." 
"Are  you?  I  am  glad  of  it.  Stranger,  do  you 
know  anything  about  a  white  man  that  came 
through  here  three  years  ago,  in  the  month  of 
August,  with  a  book  that  he  called  the  True  Veda, 
telling  about  the  divine  Redeemer,  that  he  called 
Yesu  Kristu?"  "Yes;  Dr.  Chamberlain  is  the 
only  missionary  that  has  ever  been  through  here. 
He  came  this  way  about  three  years  ago."  "Do 
you  know  him?  Have  you  ever  seen  him?  Is 
he  living  now?  and  will  you  ever  see  him  again?" 
"Yes,  I  met  him  years  ago  away  up  north,  and 
in  about  a  month  I  shall  pass  within  about  thirty 
or  forty  miles  of  where  he  is  now  living."  Said 
he,  "If  you  get  as  near  him  as  that,  you  turn  out 
of  your  way  and  find  him,  for  I  want  you  to  carry 
him  a  message.  Tell  him  that  from  the  day  he 
was  here  neither  my  son  nor  I  have  ever  worship- 
ped an  idol.  Tell  him  that  every  day  we  read  in 
that  New  Testament  that  he  left  with  us,  and 
every  day  we  kneel  and  pray  to  that  Yesu  Kristu 
of  whom  he  taught  us,  and  tell  him  that  through 
His  merits  we  hope  to  meet  him  in  heaven.  Tell 
him  the  Rajah  has  the  Bible  read  every  day  in  his 


272  THE   BIBLE   TESTED;  OR, 

palace,  and  we  think  that  he  too  at  heart  is  a  be- 
liever in  Jesus.  Tell  him  we  hope  to  meet  him 
by-and-by,  when  we  can  tell  him  all  about  it — 
saved  because  he  came  here  and  brought  us  those 
Bibles.  Give  him  this  message,  for  it  will  do  him 
good."  And  it  did  do  me  good.  When  I  heard 
that  message  I  forgot  the  difficulties  and  perils  of 
that  journey.  I  forgot  how  we  had  been  surround- 
ed by  tigers  at  night,  keeping  the  camp-fires  burn- 
ing bright  while  we  heard  them  roaring  for  prey 
in  the  jungles  around  us.  I  forgot  how  I  had  been 
swept  away  in  the  river.  I  forgot  how  we  had 
been  taken  by  the  jungle  fever  and  deserted  by 
all  our  coolies.  I  thought  of  souls  redeemed  and 
heaven's  mansions  peopled,  and  I  said,  "If  in 
that  one  village  the  Bible  has  done  this,  why  not 
in  hundreds  of  other  villages  where  we  have  left 
it?"  Ay,  methinks  I  can  see  the  throng  assem- 
bled around  the  great  white  throne,  and  it  may 
be  that  among  that  throng  some  of  those  dusky 
sons  or  daughters  of  India  may  come  to  one  of 
you,  and  grasping  your  hand,  say  to  you,  "Bro- 
ther, sister,  you  gave  that  dollar  to  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Society  that  printed  the  Bible  that 
came  away  out  to  Hyderabad  and  told  me  how 
to  reach  heaven."  "Child,  you  gave  that  dime 
that  printed  the  New  Testament  that  told  me 
how  to  get  to  heaven."  And  in  the  gladness  of 


THK    BIBI^K    IN    INDIA.  273 

that  hour,  will  we  ever,  one  of  us,  regret  that  we 
have  done  so  much  for  our  Master?  Will  we  not 
rather  wish  that  we  had  joined  hands  in  sending 
this  Word  of  God  into  every  palace  and  every  hut 
on  the  whole  globe  ? 

Does  this  Bible  change  the  character  and  the 
lives  of  those  who  embrace  it  ?  I  would  I  could 
take  you  to  a  little  village  near  my  station  where 
they  had  embraced  Christianity  in  a  body  but 
eight  months  before,  and  where  the  high  priest  of 
the  temple  near  by  came  secretly  to  me  in  my  tent 
and  asked  me,  ' '  Sir,  will  you  please  impart  to 
me  the  secret;  what  is  it  that  makes  that  Bible 
of  yours  have  such  power  over  the  lives  of  those 
that  embrace  it  ?  It  is  but  eight  months  since 
these  people  joined  you.  Before  that  they  were 
quarrelsome,  they  were  riotous,  they  were  lazy, 
they  were  shiftless,  and  now  they  are  active,  they 
are  energetic,  they  are  laborious,  they  never  drink, 
they  never  quarrel.  Why,  sir,  I  joined  in  the 
persecution  when  they  became  Christians  and 
tried  to  stamp  out  Christianity  before  it  gained 
a  foothold  here,  but  they  stood  firm,  and  now  in 
all  the  region  around  here  the  people  all  respect 
and  honor  them.  What  is  it  that  makes  the  Bi- 
ble have  such  power  over  the  lives  of  those  that 
embrace  it?  Our  Vedas  have  no  such  power. 
Please,  sir,  give  me  the  secret." 

18 


274  THE  BIBLE  TKSTKD;  OR, 

Does  it  sustain  its  recipients  ?  Our  first  con- 
vert in  the  new  region,  in  the  Teloogoo  country 
where  I  went  in  1863,  was  a  young  Brahmin. 
We  knew  that  there  was  danger  of  his  being  mur- 
dered, and  tried  to  guard  him.  But  after  a  while 
he  was  decoyed  away  and  taken  over  one  hundred 
miles  to  a  town  where  his  relatives  lived.  He 
was  immured  in  a  close  room.  Nothing  was  left 
him  but  a  cloth  around  his  loins.  In  the  room 
there  was  naught  but  a  grass  mat  for  him  to  lie 
on,  with  nothing  to  cover  him.  Day  by  day  just 
a  little  rice  and  salt  was  placed  there  for  him  to 
eat,  just  enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together; 
and  he  was  .told  that  he  should  never  come  out 
alive  unless  he  abjured  his  new-fangled  doctrines 
and  came  back  to  orthodox  Hindooism.  His 
grandfather,  a  wealthy  man,  offered  half  his  for- 
tune to  the  Brahmins  if  they  would  reconvert  him. 
They  brought  the  logicians,  the  rhetoricians,  and 
the  priests  of  all  the  region  to  argue  with  him. 
They  had  taken  away  his  Bible.  They  argued 
with  him,  and  they  kept  him  for  months.  At  last 
he  escaped  and  got  back  to  us,  all  skin  and  bones ; 
he  had  lost  all  his  flesh,  but  had  not  lost  his  faith 
and  his  trust  in  Jesus  nor  his  love  for  this  Bible. 
He  had  never  denied  Him.  A  year  after  that  we 
met  his  uncles  who  had  imprisoned  him.  They 
said  to  us,  "Sirs,  what  is  it  in  that  Bible  of  yours 


THE    BIBLE    IN    INDIA.  275 

that  gives  such  strength  and  courage  to  those  that 
embrace  it  ?  Now,  we  had  that  nephew  of  ours 
right  in  our  power.  We  told  him  that  he  should 
never  get  away  alive  unless  he  renounced  Chris- 
tianity, and  there  was  no  probability  that  he  would. 
He  expected  to  die  from  starvation  there ;  but,  sirs, 
every  day,  no  matter  who  were  there,  he  would 
kneel  in  his  cell  and  he  would  pray  to  that  Yesu 
Kristu,  the  divine  Redeemer  that  he  called  God, 
and  when  he  arose  there  was  no  doing  anything 
with  him.  You  never  saw  such  a  stubborn  fellow. 
What  is  it  that  makes  this  Bible  give  such  nerve 
and  such  courage  to  those  that  embrace  it?" 

Does  this  Bible  quell  opposition  ?  It  is  quick 
and  powerful.  I  would  I  could  take  you  to  a 
scene  in  that  same  kingdom  of  Hyderabad  that  I 
witnessed  fourteen  years  ago.  There  in  a  city,  a 
walled  town  of  18,000  inhabitants,  the  people  had 
arisen  in  a  mob  to  drive  us  out  because  we  tried 
to  speak  of  another  God  than  theirs.  We  had 
gone  to  the  market-place  and  I  had  endeavored  to 
preach  to  them  of  Christ  and  his  salvation,  but 
they  would  not  hear.  They  ordered  us  to  leave 
the  city  at  once,  but  I  had  declined  to  leave  until 
I  had  delivered  to  them  my  message.  The  throng 
was  filling  the  streets.  They  told  me  if  I  tried  to 
utter  another  word  I  should  be  killed.  There  was 
110  rescue;  they  would  have  the  city  gates  closed, 


276  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

and  there  should  never  any  news  go  forth  of  what 
was  done.  I  had  seen  them  tear  up  the  paving- 
stones  and  fill  their  arms  with  them  to  be  ready, 
and  one  was  saying  to  another,  u  You  throw  the 
first  stone  and  I  will  throw  the  next."  By  an 
artifice  I  need  not  stop  to  detail  I  succeeded  in 
getting  permission  to  tell  them  a  story  before  they 
stoned  me,  and  then  they  might  stone  me  if  they 
wished.  I  told  them  the  story  of  all  stories,  of 
the  love  of  the  divine  Father  that  had  made  us  of 
one  blood,  who  ' (  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave 
his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life."  I  told  them  the  story  of  the  birth  in  the 
manger  at  Bethlehem,  of  that  wonderful  child- 
hood, of  that  marvellous  life,  of  those  miraculous 
deeds,  of  the  gracious  words  that  he  spake.  I  told 
them  the  story  of  the  cross,  and  pictured  in  the 
graphic  words  that  the  Master  gave  me  that  day 
the  story  of  our  Saviour  nailed  upon  the  cross,  for 
them,  for  me,  for  all  the  world,  when  he  cried  in 
agony,  "My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me?"  When  I  told  them  that,  I  saw  the  men  go 
and  throw  their  stones  in  the  street  and  come 
back,  and  down  the  cheeks  of  the  very  men  that 
had  been  clamoring  the  loudest  for  my  blood  I 
saw  the  tears  running  and  dropping  off  upon  the 
stones  that  they  had  torn  up;  and  when  I  had 


THE   BIBLE   IN   INDIA.  277 

finished  the  story  and  told  them  how  he  had  been 
laid  in  the  grave  and  after  three  days  had  come 
forth  triumphant,  and  had  ascended  again  to 
heaven,  and  that  there  he  ever  lives  to  make  in- 
tercession for  them,  for  us,  for  all  the  world,  and 
that  through  his  merits  every  one  of  them  there 
assembled  could  obtain  remission  of  sin  and  eternal 
life,  I  told  them  then  that  I  had  finished  my  story 
and  they  might  stone  me  now;  but  no,  they  did  n't 
want  to  stone  me  now.  They  came  forward  and 
bought  eighty  copies  of  the  Scriptures  and  Gos- 
pels and  tracts,  and  paid  the  money  for  them,  for 
they  wanted  to  know  more  of  that  wonderful  Sa- 
viour of  whom  I  had  told  them. 

What  do  our  enemies  say  of  the  Bible  ?  those 
keen-witted  Brahmins  who  know  their  own  Vedas, 
with  all  their  beauties,  and  are  capable  of  judg- 
ing of  what  they  read.  What  do  those  our  enemies 
say  of  this  Book  ?  I  will  give  you  the  testimony 
of  one  of  their  Brahmins,  not  a  Christian. 

I  had  been  delivering  a  series  of  lectures  to 
the  educated  men  in  "my  reigon  on  their  Vedas 
and  the  Christian  Scriptures,  compared  and  con- 
trasted. I  had  shown  them  by  quotations  from 
their  V&las  and  Shastras  that  their  scriptures- 
pointed  out  one  God,  pure  and  holy  and  good,  the 
creator  and  preserver  and  controller  of  all  things; 
that  their  scriptures  pointed  out  man  in  a  state  of 


278  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

sin  and  rebellion  against  that  holy  God.  I  had 
shown  them  that  their  Vedas  pointed  out  the  fact 
that  sinful  man  could  not  be  at  peace  with  holy 
God  until  that  sin  was  in  some  way  expurgated. 
I  had  shown  them  that  their  scriptures  brought 
man  up  to  the  edge  of  the  gulf  that  yawned  be- 
tween sinful  man  and  sinless  God,  and  left  him 
there  yearning  .on  the  brink,  anxious  to  get  over, 
but  with  no  means  of  crossing;  that  the  Christian 
Scriptures,  pointing  out  God  as  a  God  of  purity 
and  holiness,  and  man  in  a  state  of  sin,  had 
brought  man  to  the  edge  of  the  same  chasm,  but 
that  they,  in  and  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  God- 
Man,  had  bridged  that  gulf;  that  Jesus  Christ,  in 
his  human  nature  resting  on  man's  side,  in  his 
divine  nature  on  God's  side,  bridged  the  gulf,  and 
that  we  could  all  pass  over,  dropping  our  sins 
into  the  chasm  as  we  went,  and  be  at  peace  with 
God.  There  had  been  in  that  concluding  lecture  a 
most  profound  silence.  The  room  was  packed,  and 
the  windows,  all  open,  reaching  down  low,  were 
filled  with  the  heads  of  those  standing  outside  who 
were  anxious  to  hear.  There  were  no  Christians 
present  except  my  singing  band;  they  were  all 
•heathen.  When  I  had  finished,  offering  a  short 
prayer  to  the  God  of  truth  to  bring  us  all  to  under- 
stand the  truth,  whatever  it  might  be,  and  rose, 
taking  my  book,  to  leave,  a  Brahmin  in  the  audi- 


THE    BIBLE    IN    INDIA. 

ence  asked  permission  to  say  a  few  words.  I  said 
to  myself,  "Now  there  will  be  a  tough  discussion, 
for  that  man  is  the  most  learned  man  in  the  audi- 
ence and  the  best  reasoner  in  all  this  region. ' '  But 
I  had  determined  to  stand  my  ground,  for  I  had 
reserve  ammunition  that  I  had  not  yet  used.  I 
expected  him  to  attack  the  position  I  had  taken; 
but  instead  of  that  he  gave  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful addresses  that  I  ever  listened  to  in  any  lan- 
guage. I  give  you  a  few  sentences  to  show  you 
what  he  thought  of  the  Christian  Scriptures.  He 
said: 

"Behold  that  mango-tree  on  yonder  roadside! 
Its  fruit  is  approaching  to  ripeness.  Bears  it  that 
fruit  for  itself  or  for  its  own  profit?  From  the 
moment  the  first  ripe  fruits  turn  their  yellow  sides 
towards  the  morning  sun  until  the  last  mango  is 
pelted  off,  it  is  assailed  with  showers  of  sticks  and 
stones  from  boys  and  men  and  every  passer-by, 
until  it  stands  bereft  of  leaves,  with  branches 
knocked  off,  bleeding  from  many  a  broken  twig; 
and  piles  of  stone  underneath,  and  clubs  and  sticks 
lodged  in  its  boughs,  are  the  only  trophies  of  its 
joyous  crop  of  fruit.  Is  it  discouraged  ?  Does  it 
cease  to  bear  fruit  ?  Does  it  say,  'If  I  am  barren 
no  one  will  pelt  me,  and  I  shall  live  in  peace  ?* 
Not  at  all.  The  next  season  the  budding  leaves, 
the  beauteous  flowers,  the  tender  fruit,  again  ap- 


280  THE  BIBLE  TESTED;  OR, 

pear.  Again  it  is  pelted  and  broken  and  wound- 
ed, but  goes  on  bearing,  and  children's  children 
pelt  its  branches  and  enjoy  its  fruit. 

"That  is  a  type  of  these  missionaries.  I  have 
watched  them  well,  and  have  seen  what  they  are. 
What  do  they  come  to  this  country  for  ?  What 
tempts  them  to  leave  their  parents,  friends,  and 
country,  and  come  to  this,  to  them  unhealthy, 
climate?  Is  it  for  gain  or  for  profit  that  they 
come  ?  Some  of  us  country  clerks  in  .Government 
offices  receive  more  salary  than  they.  Is  it  for  the 
sake  of  an  easy  life?  See  how  they  work,  and 
then  tell  me.  No;  they  seek,  like  the  mango- tree, 
to  bear  fruit  for  the  benefit  of  others,  and  that, 
too,  though  treated  with  contumely  and  abuse 
from  those  they  are  benefiting. 

"Now,  what  is  it  makes  them  do  all  this  for 
us?  It  is  their  Bible.  I  have  looked  into  it  a 
good  deal  at  one  time  and  another,  in  the  different 
languages  I  chance  to  know.  It  is  just  the  same 
in  all  languages.  The  Bible — there  is  nothing  to 
compare  with  it  in  all  our  sacred  books  for  good- 
ness and  purity  and  holiness  and  love  and  for 
high  motives  of  action. 

"Where  did  the  English-speaking  people  get 
all  their  intelligence  and  energy  and  cleverness 
and  power?  It  is  their  Bible  that  gives  it  to 
them.  And  now  they  bring  it  to  us  and  say, 


THE    BIBLE    IN    INDIA.  28l 

'This  is  what  raised  us;  take  it  and  raise  your- 
selves!' They  do  not  force  it  upon  us,  as  the 
Mohammedans  did  with  their  Koran,  but  they 
bring  it  in  love,  and  translate  it  into  our  lan- 
guages and  lay  it  before  us,  and  say,  '  L,ook  at  it; 
read  it;  examine  it,  and  see  if  it  is  not  good.'  Of 
one  thing  I  am  convinced:  do  what  we  will,  op- 
pose it  as  we  may,  it  is  the  Christian's  Bible  that 
will,  sooner  or  later,  work  the  regeneration  of 
this  land." 

"Verily,  their  rock  is  not  as  our  Rock,  even 
our  enemies  themselves  being  judges." 

The  Bible  has  always  had  its  enemies;  so  has 
everything  that  is  good,  in  the  moral  or  physical 
world.  In  Fulton's  time  the  wiseacres  of  his  day 
proved  to  a  demonstration,  as  they  thought,  that 
his  invention  of  a  steamboat  was  worthless,  and 
that  it  could  not  work.  But  when,  on  the  morn- 

ino-  set  for  its  trial,  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  were 
&  / 

lined  with  the  anxious  throng  who  had  come  to 
see  it  put  to  the  proof;  when  the  steam  was  turned 
on  and  the  wheels  began  to  revolve  and  the  boat 
glided  out,  cutting  its  way  through  the  placid 
waters  of  the  river,  shout  on  shout  from  river- 
bank  and  window  and  roof  rent  the  sky.  What 
did  they  care  for  the  demonstrations  of  the  wise 
men  ?  The  steamer  worked,  and  that  was  enough. 
So  we  will  let  the  so-called  wise  men  of  this 


282  THE   BIBLE  TESTED. 

day  prove  to  their  own  satisfaction  that  the  Bible 
is  worthless;  but  so  long  as  it  works — redeeming, 
elevating  mankind,  causing  the  moral  desert  to 
blossom  as  the  rose — we  will  stand  by  it,  so  help  us 
God!  It  has  had  attacks  before,  and  has  survived 
them.  At  the  close  of  the  last  century  there  were 
those  who,  after  demonstrating,  as  they  said,  that 
it  was  antiquated  and  defective  and  effete,  proph- 
esied that  before  the  middle  of  this  century  it 
would  be  found  only  on  the  shelves  of  the  anti- 
quarian ;  but  yet  it  works.  And  while  your  exist- 
ence and  your  names,  O  enemies  of  the  Bible, 
are  fading  from  the  remembrance  of  mankind, 
the  Bible  that  you  despised,  translated  since  your 
day  into  150  more  languages,  is  running  through 
the  world,  conquering  and  to  conquer,  till  all  the 
earth  shall  be  subject  to  its  sway. 

Friends,  \ve  have  this  Bible.  It  is  our  price- 
less heritage.  Let  us  read  it  more.  Let  us  study 
it  more.  Let  us  love  it  more.  Let  us  live  it  more; 
and  let  us  join  hands  with  this  Society  in  giving 
it  to  all  the  world,  to  every  creature. 


THE 


OLD   TESTAMENT 


VINDICATED. 


BY 

KEY.  T.  W.  CHAMBERS,  D.  D. 


ARGUMENT  OF  THE  TRACT. 


THE  value  of  the  Old  Testament,  once  unduly  ex- 
alted, has  of  late  years  been  sadly  disparaged.  This 
is  unreasonable,  because  the  two  parts  of  the  Bible  be- 
long together,  and  each  is  needed  for  the  due  under- 
standing of  the  other.  Testimony  of  the  critic  Herder 
and  of  George  Borrow.  The  Old  Testament  is  valua- 
ble for  its  truthful  history,  its  impartial  biographies,  its 
ritual  types  of  the  atonement,  and  its  treasury  of  lyric 
devotion.  Hence  it  has  been  received  by  the  church 
universal  in  every  age  as  an  integral  part  of  Scripture. 

Its  ethical  rule  is  absolutely  perfect,  and  objections 
to  this  are  only  apparent.  The  extermination  of  the 
Canaanites  was  necessary  and  just.  The  Lex  talionis 
does  not  justify  private  revenge.  Polygamy  and  extra- 
judicial  divorce  were  temporarily  allowed  only  to  avoid 
worse  evils.  Slavery  was  limited  and  modified,  although 
tolerated  in  view  of  the  circumstances.  Provision  was 
made  for  the  poor  and  helpless  and  even  the  brute  cre- 
ation. The  sins  of  God's  people  are  never  palliated  or 
excused.  Cases  of  the  patriarchs,  of  Rahab  and  Jael, 
of  Jephthah,  Samson,  and  David,  are  considered.  They 
do  not  show  wrong  ethical  principles,  but  an  imperfect 
application  of  the  true  principles  laid  down  in  the  Dec- 
alogue and  elsewhere.  An  illustration  is  drawn  from 
the  experience  of  modern  missions.  These  records 
still  of  use  for  the  instruction  and  training  of  men. 


THE 

OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 


AT  the  Reformation  the  principle  that  the 
Scripture  is  the  supreme  authority  for  faith  and 
practice  was  often  so  applied  as  to  give  the  Old 
Testament  more  than  its  just  due.  Men  insisted 
that  the  whole  body  of  truth  revealed  in  the  New 
Testament  existed  in  the  Old,  and  that  the  patri- 
archs had  exactly  the  same  knowledge  of  salva- 
tion as  the  apostles,  so  that  proof  texts  for  all 
points  of  doctrine  could  be  drawn  from  one  as  well 
as  the  other.  This  extreme  naturally  provoked  a 
reaction,  and  there  arose  men  who  asserted  that 
the  Jewish  religion  is  a  system  by  itself,  having 
no  connection  beyond  that  of  local  origin  and 
chronological  succession  with  the  Christian.  This 
was  substantially  the  view  of  Schleiermacher. 
And  since  his  day  it  has  often  cropped  out  where 
least  anticipated.  Even  in  orthodox  communions 
are  found  those  who  habitually  disparage  the  He- 
brew Scriptures.  Sometimes  they  assert  that  the 
Old  Testament  contains  so  much  that  is  harsh  and 

*  Reprinted  by  permission  from  "  COMPANION  TO  THE  REVISED 
VERSION  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT."    Funk  &  Wagnalls,  N.  Y. 


286        THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

repulsive  that  it  is  a  burden  to  carry.  At  others 
they  declare  that  it  is  antiquated  and  obsolete,  and 
that  it  is  of  no  more  use  now  than  is  the  light  of 
lamps  after  the  sun  has  arisen.  Serious  objection 
has  been  made  even  to  the  Sunday-school  lessons 
of  the  ' '  International  Series ' '  because  many  of 
its  selections  have  been  taken  from  this  part  of 
Scripture,  just  as  if  our  Lord  had  never  said, 
"Salvation  is  from  the  Jews,"  or  "If  they  hear 
not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be 
persuaded  if  one  rise  from  the  dead." 
.  The  issue  of  the  .Revised  Version  naturally 
calls  attention  to  this  mischievous  error,  and  it 
seems  worth  while  to  set  forth  the  true  state  of 
the  case.  Any  notion  of  the  kind  referred  to  is  a 
direct  reflection  upon  the  divine  Author  of  the 
Bible.  It  pleased  him  to  reveal  his  will  "by 
divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners,"  so  that  it 
should  be  a  gradual  development  running  through 
a  long  succession  of  ages.  Yet  this  was  not  done 
in  the  way  of  Mohammed,  the  Mormons,  and  other 
human  pretenders  to  inspiration,  with  whom  the 
second  disclosure  was  a  repeal  of  the  first.  On  the 
contrary,  the  whole  scheme  is  coherent,  and  hangs 
together  as  a  progressive  statement  of  truth  and 
duty,  the  former  part  foretelling  or  prefiguring  or 
hinting  at  the  latter,  and  the  latter  implying  and 
building  upon  the  former,  so  that  it  cannot  for  a 


THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.         287 

moment  be  pretended  that  the  posterior  portion 
comes  as  an  afterthought,  intended  to  amend  what 
went  before  or  to  supply  gaps  which  had  been  in- 
advertently left.  Evidently  one  presiding  mind 
ruled  over  the  construction  and  the  mutual  rela- 
tions of  both  portions.  Nor  can  the  two  be  sep- 
arated without  violence  and  damage.  Upon  this 
point  the  language  of  the  learned  G.  F.  Oehler 
may  be  properly  quoted :  * '  We  must  not  allow  our- 
selves to  be  deceived.  The  relation  of  the  New 
Testament  to  the  Old  is  such  that  both  stand  or 
fall  together.  The  New  Testament  assumes  the 
existence  of  the  Old  Testament  law  and  prophecy 
as  a  positive  presupposition.  We  cannot  have 
the  redeeming  God  of  the  New  Covenant  without 
the  Creator  and  covenant  God  preached  in  the 
Old ;  wre  cannot  disconnect  the  Redeemer  from 
the  predictions  he  came  to  fulfil.  No  New  Testa- 
ment idea  indeed  is  fully  set  forth  in  the  Old,  but 
the  genesis  of  all  the  ideas  of  the  New  Testament 
relating  to  salvation  lies  in  the  Old."  ("Theol- 
ogy of  the  Old  Testament,"  Day's  edition,  p.  2.) 
All  admit  that  the  New  Testament  is  needed  to 
understand  the  Old;  but  it  is  equally  true,  though 
by  no  means  so  generally  acknowledged,  that  the 
Old  Testament  is  needed  to  understand  the  New. 
So  many  references  are  made  by  the  Saviour  and 
by  the  apostles  and  evangelists  to  the  antecedent 


288        THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

revelation  that  any  reader  would  stumble  unless 
he  had  Moses  and  the  prophets  in  hand.  The  two 
Testaments  are  not  the  same,  for  if  they  were  why 
should  there  be  two  ?  But  they  are  not  unrelated, 
much  less  are  they  opposed  to  each  other.  To- 
gether they  constitute  one  continuous  body  of 
revelation,  which  proceeds  step  by  step  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end,  and  is  an  orderly  and  con- 
sistent unfolding  of  the  germ  first  given  at  the 
,  gates  of  Paradise.  To  discard  or  overlook  the 
Old  Testament  is  to  rob  the  Bible  of  its  complete- 
ness and  to  miss  the  assurance  and  comfort  which 
arise  from  a  sense  of  its  wondrous  unity  as  anima- 
ted by  a  single  life,  although  set  forth  under  such 
varied  circumstances  and  at  such  different  times. 
It  is  to  forget  that  it  is  one  and  the  same  Spirit 
who  uses  the  histories  and  psalms  and  prophecies 
of  the  earlier  economy,  and  the  gospels  and  epis- 
tles of  the  later,  to  convey  the  Word  of  God  to 
men.  It  is  to  despise  that  word  of  prophecy  (i.  e., 
of  inspiration)  to  which  one  of  the  latest  books  in 
the  New  Testament  tells  us  to  "  take  heed  as  unto 
a  lamp  shining  in  a  dark  place,"  clearly  imply- 
ing that  it  is  a  revelation  of  the  divine  will  with 
which  we  cannot  safely  or  lawfully  dispense. 
2  Pet.  1:19.* 

*  "  What  Pliny  says  of  nature,  '  Natures  rerum  z/z's  atque  ma- 
jestas  in  omnibus  momentis  fide  caret,  si  quis  modo  paries  ejus  ac 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.         289 

That  this  opinion  is  not  due  merely  to  doc- 
trinal prejudice  is  apparent  from  the  utterances  of 
the  fine  critic  Herder  a  century  ago  in  the  preface 
to  his  ( '  Voni  Geist  JiebmiscJier  Poesie. ' '  "  The  ba- 
sis of  theology  is  the  Bible,  and  that  of  the  New 
Testament  is  the  Old.  It  is  impossible  to  under- 
stand the  former  aright  without  a  previous  under- 
standing of  the  latter;  for  Christianity  proceeded 
from  Judaism,  and  the  genius  of  the  language  in 
both  books  is  the  same.  And  this  genius  of  the 
language  we  can  nowhere  study  better — that  is, 
with  more  truth,  depth,  comprehensiveness,  and 
satisfaction — than  in  its  poetry,  and  indeed,  as  far 
as  possible,  in  its  most  ancient  poetry.  It  produ- 
ces a  false  impression  and  misleads  the  young  the- 
ologian to  commend  to  him  the  New  Testament 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  Old,  for  without  this  the 
other  can  never  be  understood  in  a  scholarlike 
and  satisfactory  manner.  In  the  Old  Testament 
we  find  a  rich  interchange  of  history,  of  figurative 
representation,  of  characters,  and  of  scenery.  In 
it  we  see  the  many-colored  dawn,  the  beautiful 
going  forth  of  the  sun  in  his  milder  radiance;  in 
the  New  Testament  he  stands  in  the  highest 
heavens  and  in  meridian  splendor,  and  every  one 
knows  which  period  of  the  day  is  the  most  re- 

non  totum  complectatur  ammo,1  is  applicable  to  the  kingdom  of 
grace  in  a  still  stronger  degree."     Hengstenberg. 

19 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED, 

freshing  and  strengthening  to  the  natural  eye  of 
sense.  Let  the  scholar  then  study  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, even  if  it  be  only  as  a  human  book  full  of 
ancient  poetry,  with  kindred  feeling  and  affection, 
and  thus  will  the  New  come  forth  to  us  of  itself 
in  its  purity,  its  sublime  glory,  its  more  than 
earthly  beauty.  Let  a  man  gather  into  his  own 
mind  the  abundant  riches  of  the  former,  and  he 
will  never  become  in  the  latter  one  of  those  smat- 
terers  who,  barren  and  without  taste  or  feeling, 
desecrate  these  sacred  things."*  And  this  is  con- 
firmed by  independent  testimony  gathered  in  the 
school  of  experience.  Mr.  George  Borrow,  who 
spent  many  years  in  circulating  the  Scriptures  in 
foreign  lands,  makes  this  interesting  and  conclu- 
sive statement  in  his  work  called  "  The  Bible  in 
Spain, "  first  published  in  1843  (*  quote  from  the 
end  of  the  forty-eighth  chapter):  "I  had  by  this 
time  made  the  discovery  of  a  fact  which  it  would 
have  been  well  had  I  been  aware  of  three  years 
before — I  mean  the  inexpediency  of  printing  Tes- 
taments, and  Testaments  alone,  for  [Roman]  Cath- 
olic countries.  The  reason  is  plain:  the  [Roman] 
Catholic,  unused  to  Scripture  reading,  finds  a 
thousand  things  which  he  cannot  possibly  under- 

*  This  quotation  is  made  with  some  alterations  from  the  ad- 
mirable translation  of  Herder's  work  by  Dr.  James  Marsh,  pub- 
lished in  1833. 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.        2QI 

stand  in  the  New  Testament,  the  foundation  of 
which  is  the  Old.  *  Search  the  Scriptures,  for 
they  bear  witness  of  Me, '  may  well  be  applied  to 
this  point.  It  may  be  replied  that  New  Testa- 
ments separate  are  in  great  demand  and  of  infinite 
utility  in  England.  But  England,  thanks  be  to 
the  Lord,  is  not  a  papal  country;  and  though  an 
English  laborer  may  read  a  Testament  and  derive 
from  it  the  most  blessed  fruit,  it  does  not  follow 
that  a  Spanish  or  Italian  peasant  will  enjoy  simi- 
lar success,  as  he  will  find  many  dark  things  with 
which  the  other  is  well  acquainted  and  competent 
to  understand,  being  versed  in  the  Bible  history 
from  his  childhood. ' ' 

Nor  is  it  without  significance  that  nearly  one- 
half  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  is  composed  of  his- 
torical matter.  It  is  not  history  in  the  modern 
sense  of  that  term,  investigating  the  causes  of 
events  and  explaining  them  on  philosophical 
principles,  but  rather  a  simple  series  of  annals, 
recording  the  progress  of  affairs  without  any 
attempt  to  analyze  characters,  to  classify  results, 
or  to  deduce  the  general  laws  of  human  develop- 
ment. The  narrative  portions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  usually  considered  rather  as  furnishing 
the  materials  of  history  than  history  itself.  But 
it  is  just  this  absence  of  speculative  deductions 
and  of  any  endeavor  to  frame  the  general  laws 


2Q2       THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

that  control  particular  events  that  gives  the  book 
its  chief  value.  It  is  in  no  sense  a  general  his- 
tory of  mankind,  and  indeed  touches  upon  the 
world  at  large  only  in  the  beginning  when  speak- 
ing of  the  origin  of  the  race,  or  towards  the  close 
when  the  symbolic  visions  of  Daniel  set  forth  the 
revolutions  of  empires  that  are  to  introduce  the 
kingdom  that  shall  have  no  end.  Nor  is  it  a 
mere  secular  or  civil  history  of  certain  nations. 
The  bulk  of  the  narrative  is  taken  up  with  the 
fortunes  of  the  Hebrews  as  a  chosen  people,  the 
possessors  of  the  only  true  religion,  among  whom 
the  crmrch  of  the  living  God  was  founded,  and 
through  a  long  course  of  ages  developed  under 
local  and  ceremonial  restrictions.  The  chronicle 
is  limited  to  the  record  of  occurrences,  and  as  such 
is  strictly  true.  This  indeed  has  often  been  de- 
nied, but  without  reason.  For  the  impartial 
record,  telling  the  faults  as  well  as  the  virtues  of 
the  writers  and  of  the  race  to  which  they  belong, 
excludes  the  idea  of  wilful  perversion.  Men  do 
not  invent  what  brings  them  discredit.  But  the 
annals  are  peculiar  in  that  they  set  forth  the  deal- 
ings of  God  with  the  people  whom  he  chose  to  be 
the  depository  of  his  truth  and  the  means  of  its 
preservation  until  the  fulness  of  time  came  for  its 
world-wide  diffusion.  There  is  then  a  copious 
and  continuous  illustration  of  the  principles  of 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT   VINDICATED.        293 

the  divine  government  in  application  to  nations. 
The  writers  indeed  hardly  seem  conscious  of  this; 
at  least  they  never  stop  to  make  any  reflections  of 
that  kind.  But  all  the  same  they  set  forth  the 
facts  which  show  God's  hand  in  history.  Very 
many  of  the  themes  which  occupy  a  large  space 
in  the  works  of  modern  writers — the  arts,  man- 
ners, institutions,  social  conditions,  literature,  and 
science — are  wholly  omitted,  but  the  religious 
idea  is  never  absent.  For  the  people  were  under 
a  theocracy;  their  real  monarch  was  He  who  sat 
enthroned  above  the  cherubim.  And  everything 
turned  upon  their  relation  to  him  and  their  fidel- 
ity to  that  relation.  Hence  the  simple,  artless 
chronicle  has  a  value  peculiarly  its  own,  as  repre- 
senting in  detail  and  on  a  very  small  scale  the 
eternal  principles  which  rule  the  world,  and  are 
sure  to  work  themselves  out  in  the  course  of  the 
largest  empires  in  any  part  of  the  earth. 

The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  biography,  the 
charming  and  instructive  literature  which  treats 
of  the  lives  of  particular  persons.  No  nation 
possessed  of  any  degree  of  intellectual  culture  is 
without  its  treasures  of  this  kind,  but  all  of  them 
together  of  every  age  and  land  would  fail  to  sup- 
ply the  lack  of  the  memoirs  contained  in  the  Old 
Testament.  One  reason  of  this  is  found  in  the 
impartiality  of  the  record.  No  personal,  social, 


2Q4       THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

national  prejudice  ever  biasses  the  mind  of  the 
writer.  He  never  stops  to  commend  the  subject 
of  which  he  treats  or  to  apologize  for  what  cer- 
tainly needs  apology.  The  treatment  is  like  col- 
orless glass,  which  transmits  the  rays  it  receives 
without  imparting  to  them  a  shade  of  any  kind. 
It  does  not  make  any  difference  what  position  a 
man  holds,  or  how  much  he  may  have  been  hon- 
ored either  by  God  or  man,  or  to  what  extent  his 
good  name  is  identified  with  that  of  God's  people, 
the  evil  in  his  life  is  recorded  as  faithfully  as  the 
good  and  without  any  attempt  at  extenuation. 
Such  absolute  fidelity  is,  or  at  least  seems  to  be, 
an  impossibility  in  our  day.  Indeed,  the  ten- 
dency in  the  other  direction  has  been  so  strong  as 
to  give  rise  to  the  proverbial  expression,  the  lues 
biographica.  But  in  the  Hebrew  memoirs  one  is 
brought  face  to  face  with  actual  facts,  and  we  see 
the  man  as  he  is,  and  not  as  his  kindred  or  friends 
or  countrymen  would  wish  him  to  appear.  Both 
sides  of  his  career  are  given  with  equal  simplicity 
and  fulness.  The  same  hand  which  tells  of  the 
patriarch  who  is  so  strong  in  faith  as  to  be  ready 
at  God's  command  to  offer  up  his  only  son,  the 
heir  of  the  promises,  tells  also  how  on  two  sep- 
arate occasions,  through  a  mean  fear,  he  falsely 
pretended  that  his  wife  was  his  sister.  The  same 
book  which  describes  the  generosity  of  David  at 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.        295 

the  well  by  the  gate  of  Bethlehem  when  the  three 
heroes  broke  through  the  garrison  and  drew  the 
coveted  drink  for  him,  recites  also  the  hideous 
story  of  his  dealing  with  Bathsheba  and  Uriah, 
the  melancholy  record  of  uncleanness  and  blood- 
shedding.  The  more  closely  the  pages  of  these 
records  are  studied,  the  more  evident  it  becomes 
that  the  reader  has  before  him  the  veritable  man 
himself  as  he  would  appear  to  Him  who  searches 
the  heart  and  tries  the  reins.  Not  only  are  all  the 
facts  that  are  given  true,  but  they  are  so  given  as 
to  produce  a  correct  impression,  a  point  in  which 
the  most  impartial  and  conscientious  of  merely 
human  biographers  are  very  apt  to  fail. 

Its  numerous  and  varied  illustrations  of  the 
doctrine  of  expiation  give  a  peculiar  value  to  the 
Old  Testament.  There  are  those  who  pronounce 
the  whole  L,evitical  economy  as  inscrutable  as  the 
Sphinx,  a  mere  trial  of  faith  and  patience.  Yet 
its  essential  elements  are  plain  and  striking,  as  is 
shown  by  the  degree  in  which  the  language  used 
in  describing  them  has  entered  into  the  vocabu- 
lary of  Christians  and  formed  the  chosen  medium 
for  the  expression  of  their  experiences.  The 
courts  of  the  tabernacle  and  temple  streamed  in- 
cessantly with  blood  and  the  air  was  thick  with 
the  smoke  of  incense.  The  fire  never  went  out 
upon  the  altar.  The  herd  and  the  flock  and  the 


296       THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

birds  of  the  air  contributed  to  the  sacrifices  which 
were  offered  not  only  every  morning  and  evening, 
but  on  innumerable  other  occasions.  Confession 
of  sins  was  made  over  the  head  of  the  victims 
and  the  blood  was  sprinkled  upon  the  altar.  The 
whole  ritual  was  one  continuous  parable  of  sub- 
stitution. It  exhibited  by  means  of  a  complicated 
system  of  oblations  the  way  of  a  sinner's  accept- 
ance with  God.  It  showed  in  type  and  shadow 
what  was  afterwards  accomplished  in  real  and 
abiding  efficacy.  It  exhibited  on  the  outward 
and  earthly  plane  what  was  done  in  a  far  higher 
sphere.  The  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  was  intend- 
ed to  stand  in  marked  and  living  contrast  with 
the  blood  of  Him  who  was  a  Lamb  without  spot, 
the  Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.  The  wondrous  tragedy  on  Calvary,  which 
stands  in  the  centre  of  the  world's  history,  finds 
its  best  illustration  in  the  Passover  sacrifice  of  the 
elder  economy,  or  in  its  twofold  offering  on  the 
great  Day  of  Atonement.  One  entire  book  of  the 
New  Testament  is  mainly  occupied  with  the 
comparison  of  the  high-priest  after  the  order  of 
Melchizedek  and  his  work  with  the  Aaronic 
priesthood  and  its  unceasing  repetition  of  obla- 
tions which  never  could  purify  the  conscience  or 
take  away  sin.  To  understand  the  terms  of  this 
comparison,  to  feel  its  force,  and  to  seize  the  mo- 


THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   VINDICATED.        297 

mentous  underlying  truth,  we  must  have  the  Old 
Testament.  Its  explicit  statements  are  of  more 
worth  than  all  the  speculations  ever  set  forth  even 
by  the  most  acute  and  brilliant  of  philosophical 
theorists.  Its  "object  teaching"  as  to  sin  and 
redemption  is  a  prominent  factor  in  the  experi- 
ence of  every  humble  believer.  There  are  many 
questions  about  the  system  which  he  cannot  an- 
swer; but  its  interior  essence,  its  characteristic 
feature,  has  become  the  life-blood  of  his  faith. 

Further,  the  Old  Testament  contains  the  lit- 
urgy of  the  universal  church.  The  hymns  of  the 
New  Covenant  are  very  few,  the  need  of  the  be- 
liever in  that  respect  having  been  already  supplied 
by  the  Psalter.  And  while  it  is  true  that  the  ser- 
vice books  of  the  ancient  church  contain  many 
admirable  productions,  they  do  not  come  up  to 
the  majesty  and  the  wide  compass  of  the  Hebrew 
worship,  as  shown  in  the  Psalms  of  adoration. 
Neither  Ambrose  nor  Gregory  reached  or  ap- 
proached this  level.  They  tempered  the  boldness 
of  the  originals,  but  their  admixtures  of  what  is 
more  Christian-like  and  spiritual  toned  down  the 
ardor  and  lessened  the  sweep  of  the  singers  of 
Israel.  "  Nor  would  it  be  possible — it  has  never 
yet  seemed  so — to  Christianize  the  Hebrew  an- 
thems, retaining  their  power,  their  earth-like 
richness,  and  their  manifold  splendors,  which  are 


298       THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

the  very  splendors  and  the  true  riches  and  the 
grandeurs  of  God's  world,  and  withal  attem- 
pered with  expressions  that  touch  to  the  quick 
the  warmest  human  sympathies.  ...  As  to  the 
powers  of  sacred  poetry,  those  powers  were  ex- 
panded to  the  full,  and  were  quite  expended  too, 
by  the  Hebrew  bards.  What  are  modern  hymns 
but  so  many  laborious  attempts  to  put  in  a  new 
form  that  which,  as  it  was  done  in  the  very  best 
manner  so  many  ages  ago,  can  never  be  well  done 
again  otherwise  than  in  the  way  of  a  verbal  repe- 
tition." So  said  Isaac  Taylor  in  his  u  Spirit  of 
Hebrew  Poetry"  (p.  157),  and  his  words  are  true. 
Nothing  in  all  literature  is  more  remarkable  than 
the  adaptation  of  the  Psalms  to  express  the  reli- 
gious wants  of  the  human  soul  in  every  age  and 
place.  The  lyrics  are  all  products  of  Hebrew 
times  and  the  Hebrew  people,  and  yet  they  are 
found  even  in  translation  to  do  what  nothing  else 
does  for  any  people  anywhere.  Joy  and  sorrow, 
praise  and  prayer,  confession  and  thanksgiving, 
penitence  and  faith,  hope  and  fear,  all  kinds,  all 
degrees  of  human  experience,  are  here  set  forth  in 
a  way  that  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  The 
most  acute  and  learned  draw  inspiration  from  this 
fountain,  and  the  youngest  and  feeblest  find  the 
same  words  comforting  and  refreshing.  As  liter- 
ature the  Psalms  repay  the  most  patient  and  pro- 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.        299 

longed  study;  but  as  records  of  the  heart  under 
the  impression  of  the  profoundest  spiritual  truths 
they  meet  a  response  from  multitudes  who  have 
no  ear  for  melody  and  no  eye  for  the  graces  of 
form.  As  Mr.  Carlyle  said,  "David,  a  soul  in- 
spired by  divine  music,  struck  tones  that  were  an 
echo  of  the  sphere-harmonies,  and  are  still  felt  to 
be  such'."  In  view  of  this  fact  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, as  containing  the  Psalms,  has  an  immeasu- 
rable importance,  and  a  revision  of  the  common 
version  a  commensurate  interest.  If  obscurities 
are  removed,  if  the  sense  is  more  faithfully  given, 
if  poetical  peculiarities  are  brought  out  more  dis- 
tinctly, while  the  rhythm  and  the  music  of  the 
old  translators  are  preserved,  there  is  a  very  great 
gain  both  literary  and  devotional.  The  experi- 
ence of  ages  shows  that  the  Psalter  will  continue 
to  be  the  model  of  prayer  and  praise  for  the  hosts 
of  the  redeemed,  and  whatever  helps  these  hosts 
to  use  it  more  intelligently  and  with  richer  enjoy- 
ment can  hardly  fail  to  be  a  lasting  blessing. 

In  support  ot  what  has  been  said,  appeal  may 
be  made  to  the  usage  of  the  church  universal. 
All  churches  founded  upon  the  New  Testament 
have  acknowledged  the  perpetual  authority  of  the 
Old  as  an  integral  part  of  revelation.  The  erratic 
views  of  heretical  sects,  such  as  the  Marcionites 


300        THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

of  the  second  century  and  the  Socinians  of  the 
sixteenth,  or  of  individual  errorists,  have  never, 
even  in  the  darkest  periods,  obtained  general  cur- 
rency, but  rather  serve  as  foils  to  set  forth  in 
prominent  relief  the  signal  unanimity  with  which 
Papists  and  Protestants,  the  Eastern  church  and 
the  Western,  have  clung  to  the  Old  Testament  as 
an  essential  part  of  Scripture.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  the  experience  of  Christians  in  all  ages  as 
bearing  testimony  on  this  interesting  and  import- 
ant matter.  The  moral  and  spiritual  influence 
exerted  by  the  Bible  on  the  characters  and  lives 
of  men  has  been  exerted  by  it  as  a  whole,  and  not 
by  the  New  Testament  alone.  Perhaps  it  may 
be  said  with  truth  that  in  proportion  to  the  depth 
and  power  of  experimental  piety  in  any  age  or 
individual  has  been  the  disposition  to  avoid  cast- 
ing lots  upon  the  parts  of  revelation,  and  to  pre- 
serve it  like  the  Master's  tunic,  "without  seam, 
woven  from  the  top  throughout. ' '  And  even  the 
brilliant  but  erratic  Kwald  said  in  his  last  pub- 
lished work  ("Die  Lehre  der  Bible  von  Gott."  I. 
§141),  "  The  truth  is,  the  Old  Testament  contains 
a  multitude  of  fundamental  truths  in  such  cer- 
tainty and  completeness  that  they  cannot  be  more 
deeply  grounded  or  better  defended  in  the  New 
Testament,  but  are  everywhere  presupposed  as 
standing  firm  and  inviolate  since  the  old  times.'' 


THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.         30! 

But  against  all  these  claims  in  behalf  of  the 
Old  Testament  it  is  sometimes  urged  that  its  mo- 
rality is  defective,  that  it  represents  the  earlier 
stages  in  the  progress  of  ethical  ideas,  and  that 
therefore  it  has  been  wholly  supplanted  by  the 
purer  and  more  elevated  statements  of  the  Gospel. 
In  support  of  this  objection  appeal  is  made  to  the 
way  in  which  the  Hebrews  obtained  possession  of 
Canaan,  to  certain  of  their  social  and  domestic 
institutions,  and  to  gross  instances  of  wrong-doing 
recorded  of  persons  recognized  as  true  believers. 
In  reply  it  is  proper  to  begin  with  the  assertion 
that  the  ethical  rule  of  the  Old  Testament  is  per- 
fect, absolutely  perfect.  It  is  contained  in  the 
Decalogue,  which,  after  laying  a  firm  foundation 
in  the  obligations  of  religion,  proceeds  to  build 
upon  that  foundation  a  code  of  social  ethics  which 
never  has  been  or  can  be  surpassed,  providing  as 
it  does  for  all  relative  duties,  for  life,  for  personal 
purity,  for  property,  and  for  reputation,  closing 
and  riveting  the  whole  by  a  precept  which  takes 
in  the  heart.  The  New  Testament,  so  far  from 
disowning  or  disparaging  this  rule  of  life,  con- 
firms and  sanctions  it  in  the  strongest  possible 
manner.  Our  Lord  said  expressly,  "Think  not 
that  I  came  to  destroy  the  law  and  the  prophets: 
I  came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil,"  Matt.  5:17— 
i.  e.,  as  his  further  statements  showed,  to  develop 


3<D2        THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

its  deeper  meaning,  to  guard  against  misconcep- 
tions, to  remove  false  glosses,  and  to  enable  its 
subjects  to  keep  it.  So  the  great  apostle  said, 
' '  The  law  is  holy,  and  the  commandment  holy 
and  righteous  and  good,"  Rom.  7:12.  Through- 
out the  later  Scripture  reference  is  continually 
made  to  the  Ten  Commandments  as  the  perma- 
nent and  authoritative  standard  of  moral  obliga- 
tion, Matt.  15:4;  19:17-19;  John  7:19;  Acts  7:38; 
Rom.  13:8-10;  Gal.  3:10;  Eph.  6:2;  Heb.  2:2; 
Jas.  2:8-11;  4:11;  i  John  5:2,  3.  Nothing  in 
all  history — nothing  in  the  flights  of  human  imag- 
ination— has  ever  exceeded  the  circumstances  of 
majesty  and  awe  amid  which  this  divine  code  was 
announced  to  men.  It  was,  and  was  intended  to 
be,  a  complete  summation  of  human  duty. 

But  it  is  to  the  conduct  of  the  people  under 
this  law  that  the  impugners  of  the  Old  Testament 
refer.  One  of  the  most  common  objections  is 
based  upon  the  way  in  which  Israel  became  pos- 
sessed of  the  land  of  Canaan,  viz.,  by  the  literal 
extermination  of  its  former  inhabitants — a  pro- 
cedure which  is  denounced  as  monstrous  and  in- 
human. But  it  is  to  be  said  (i)  that  the  whole- 
sale destruction  was  the  same  that  fell  upon  the 
cities  of  the  plain  and  upon  the  world  at  the  gen- 
eral deluge,  a  destruction  which  in  each  case  was 
declared  to  be  the  punishment  of  great  and  mani- 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.         303 

fold'sins;  (2)  that  it  was  inflicted  by  the  express 
command  of  God  acting  as  the  moral  governor  of 
the  world;  and  (3)  that  it  was  necessary  in  order 
that  the  chosen  people  might  occupy  the  chosen 
land.  The  only  alternative  was  to  make  slaves 
of  the  entire  population.  But  this  would  have 
been  ruinous  to  Israel,  first  by  the  habits  of  sloth 
and  self-indulgence  which  such  a  condition  of 
things  must  needs  have  engendered,  and  then  still 
more  by  the  close  and  continual  contact  it  would 
involve  with  a  population  degraded  by  a  grossly 
corrupt  religion  and  by  a  bestial  immorality. 
Were  the  Hebrews  to  be  segregated  from  other 
races  in  some  one  particular  region,  it  was  indis- 
pensable that  the  previous  inhabitants  of  that 
region  should  be  removed.  And  dreadful  as  the 
destruction  of  the  Canaanites  was,  it  was  not  too 
high  a  price  to  pay  for  the  preservation  of  true 
religion  in  the  earth. 

Again,  it  is  affirmed  that  the  Old  -Testament 
in  the  Lex  talionis  distinctly  recognized  the  right 
of  private  revenge,  and  made  every  man  the  aven- 
ger of  his  own  wrongs.  "Thou  shalt  give  life  for 
life,  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,"  etc.,  Bxod. 
21  : 20,  is  interpreted  as  if  it  authorised  individ- 
ual retaliation.  But  it  did  no  such  thing.  It 
occurs  among  judicial  statutes,  and  is  to  be  inter- 
preted in  the  same  manner.  In  fact,  it  simply 


304       THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

declared  the  penalty  of  injuries  wilfully  commit- 
ted, and  announced  to  all  that  whoever  wronged 
another  must  make  suitable  reparation  for  the 
wrong  unless  he  could  compound  matters  with 
the  injured  party,  which  was  allowed  in  every 
case  save  that  of  deliberate  murder,  Num.  35:31. 
The  execution  of  this  law — -a  law  which  is  found 
in  the  XII.  Tables  of  Rome,  and  which  is  ap- 
proved by  Montesquieu  as  founded  in  reason  and 
drawn  from  the  nature  of  things — was  committed 
to  the  authorities.  Our  Lord's  statement  in  Matt. 
5:3^j  39  does  not  set  aside  this  judicial  rule,  but 
reproves  the  errors  of  those  in  his  time  who  ap- 
plied in  private  intercourse  and  for  personal  vin- 
dictiveness  what  was  originally  given  only  for  the 
public  administration  of  justice. 

It  is  further  objected  that  the  Old  Testament 
tolerated  polygamy  and  extra-judicial  divorce. 
In  regard  to  the  latter  of  these  we  have  a  full 
and  satisfactory  explanation  from  our  Lord.  He 
points  back  to  the  monogamy  established  in  Par- 
adise as  the  true  basis  of  the  family  constitution, 
and  one  that  was  never  repealed.  But  in  the 
case  of  Jews  the  statute  was  relaxed,  not  because 
it  was  wrong,  but  because  of  the  "hardness  of 
the  people's  hearts."  Woman  being  the  weaker 
vessel  was  sure  to  suffer  unless  some  provision 
was  made  to  temper  and  restrain  the  fierceness  of 


THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   VINDICATED.         305 

men  of  coarse  nature  and  uncivilized  habits. 
Divorce  was  an  evil,  yet  when  made  under  the 
forms  of  law  it  was  better  than  the  continuous 
grinding  oppression  for  which  the  strict  seclusion 
of  women  in  the  Kast  allowed  unlimited  range. 

The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  polygamy. 
This  was  never  established,  much  less  praised,  as 
it  is  among  the  Mormons  of  our  day  as  a  useful 
and  blessed  institution.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
simply  tolerated,  and  the  providence  of  God 
showed  very  distinctly  in  the  lives  of  the  patri- 
archs and  of  the  parents  of  Samuel,  and  in  the 
experience  of  David  and  Solomon,  to  what  evils 
it  necessarily  led.  Yet,  upon  the  whole,  in  a 
country  like  Palestine  and  in  an  age  when  women 
were  cut  off  from  all  the  social  life  of  both  sexes, 
it  was  doubtless  expedient  to  allow  a  departure 
from  the  law  laid  down  at  the  creation,  and  per- 
mit a  man  to  have  more  wives  than  one,  on  the 
ground  that  this  imperfect  arrangement  was  bet- 
ter than  general  and  promiscuous  concubinage, 
and  that  the  habit  being  so  deeply  rooted,  it  was 
wiser  to  regulate  and  control  it  than  to  meet  it  by 
an  absolute  prohibition  in  that  rudimentary  stage 
of  human  progress. 

Slavery  is  another  of  the  features  of  Old  Tes- 
tament life  that  are  severely  censured.  Invol- 
untary servitude  belongs  to  an  inferior  civiliza- 

20 


306       THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

tion,  and,  strange  as  it  seems,  marks  a  step  in  its 
upward  progress.  There  was  a  time  when  all 
captives  in  war  were  slain  in  cold  blood,  but  after- 
wards they  were  spared  and  put  in  bondage. 
Hence  the  name  servatus  (preserved)  contracted 
into  servus  (slave).  As  a  living  dog  is  better  than 
a  dead  lion,  so  it  was  better  to  become  a  living 
bondsman  than  to  be  a  slain  captive.  The  in- 
stitution existed  when  the  Jews  became  a  nation. 
They  retained  it,  but  greatly  modified  its  severe 
features.  A  native  slave  could  not  be  such  long- 
er than  six  years,  except  by  his  own  consent  for- 
mally given,  and  in  any  event  his  servitude  ceased 
at  the  year  of  jubilee.  A  foreign-born  heathen 
slave  might  be  kept  in  perpetual  bondage,  but  a 
bondage  unlike  any  that  ever  existed  in  any  part 
of  the  ancient  world.  He  never  was  regarded  as 
a  tool,  a  chattel,  a  thing  without  any  rights. 
Nothing  approaching  to  the  language  even  of 
such  men  as  Plato  or  Aristotle,  on  this  subject,  is 
to  be  found  anywhere  in  Scripture.  The  slave 
had  the  benefit  of  the  weekly  day  of  rest  and  of 
all  the  joyful  public  and  private  festivals  of  the 
Mosaic  economy.  Express  mention  is  made  of 
the  "man-servant  and  the  maid-servant"  in  the 
Fourth  Commandment,  and  also  in  the  directions 
about  the  domestic  feasts  made  upon  the  tithes 
and  offerings,  Deut.  12:18.  The  slave  was  a  per- 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.        307 

son,  and  as  such  had  his  rights  protected  under 
the  law.  Above  all,  he  was  among  a  people  who 
enjoyed  the  revelation  of  the  being  and  will  of 
the  one  living  and  true  God,  infinite  in  holiness 
and  mercy  as  well  as  in  wisdom  and  might.  "Je- 
hovah, Jehovah,  a  God  merciful  and  gracious, 
long-suffering,  and  abundant  in  kindness  and 
truth."  It  was  better  to  be  a  serf  or  bond-servant 
in  Israel  than  a  man  of  wealth  and  station  in 
heathen  darkness,  just  as  the  devout  Psalmist  pre- 
ferred rather  to  be  a  doorkeeper  in  the  house  of 
God  than  to  dwell  at  ease  in  the  tents  of  wicked- 
ness. Slavery  was  not  prohibited,  because  the 
times  were  not  ripe  for  such  prohibition.  A  -wise 
lawgiver  always  adapts  his  legislation  to  the  char- 
acter and  circumstances  of  the  people.  Even 
Christianity  did  not  direct  the  immediate  over- 
throw of  the  system,  but  contented  itself  with  an- 
nouncing the  principles  and  inculcating  the  duties 
which  were  sure  in  the  end  to  break  every  shackle 
and  yet  create  no  social  convulsion.  The  feudal 
system  which  once  prevailed  over  Europe  was  in 
some  respects  as  oppressive  as  slavery,  yet  its 
bonds  were  gradually  relaxed  in  the  same  way, 
until'  now  it  has  become  a  mere  name.  There 
seems  little  reason  to  doubt  that  the  permission 
and  regulation  of  slavery  under  the  Old  Economy 
was  not  only  wiser,  but  humaner,  than  its  absolute 


308        THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

prohibition  would  have  been.  It  certainly  did  not 
proceed  from  harshness  or  indifference  to  human 
welfare.  For  the  Mosaic  code  forbade  hatred  and 
revenge,  Lev.  19:17,  18,  enjoined  kindness  even 
to  enemies,  Bxod.  23  :  4,  5,  commanded  respect 
towards  the  deaf,  the  blind,  and  the  aged,  Lev. 
19: 14,  32,  and  required  tender  care  for  the  poor, 
the  widow,  the  fatherless,  and  the  stranger,  Exod. 
22:21-27;  Deut.  24:17,  19.  For  these  the  cor- 
ners of  the  field  must  remain  unreaped  and  the 
forgotten  sheaf  must  be  left  where  it  had  fallen. 
Even  animals  shared  in  the  compassion  of  the 
Hebrew  lawgiver,  Deut.  22:6,  7;  25:4.  Such 
tender  consideration  for  the  weak  and  helpless 
incorporated  into  the  legal  system  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament indicates  high  morality  and  a  very  pro- 
found sentiment.  Where  is  the  advance  upon 
these  points  which  some  tell  us  is  to  be  found  in 
the  New  Testament?  That  Testament  contains 
nothing  new  either  in  form  or  in  spirit. 

It  is  further  urged  that  the  Old  Testament 
contains  numerous  instances  of  gross  wrong-doing, 
the  perpetrators  of  which  were  yet  regarded  and 
treated  as  acceptable  with  God  and  made  recipi- 
ents of  his  favor.  These  are  the  falsehoods  of 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  those  of  Rahab  and 
Jael,  the  horrible  sacrifice  of  Jephthah's  daughter, 
the  deplorable  misdeeds  of  Samson,  and  the  crimes 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.        309 

of  David,  the  man  after  God' sown  heart.  In  re- 
gard to  all  these  the  truth  must  be  held  fast  that 
sins  are  sins,  whoever  commits  them.  The  Old 
Testament  never  blurs  moral  distinctions,  neith- 
er should  we.  A  man's  eminence  or  advanta- 
ges rather  enhances  than  lessens  the  criminality 
of  his  evil  deeds.  Take,  for  example,  the  most 
common  of  the  offences  already  referred  to — false- 
hood. The  most  of  the  lies  that  are  told  come 
through  fear.  A  lie  is  the  habitual  refuge  of  a 
coward.  But  who  ought  to  be  less  of  a  coward 
than  the  man  who  believes  in  the  living  God  and 
regards  him  as  his  friend?  The  lies  of  the  patri- 
archs are  grievous  blots  upon  their  good  name. 
But  they  are  not  condoned  in  the  Scripture,  but 
simply  recorded  as  integral  parts  of  the  history 
and  as  solemn  admonitions  to  every  reader.  In 
Jacob's  case  his  subsequent  experience  indicates  a 
very  salutary  dealing  of  Providence  with  him.  A 
long  and  painful  exile  from  home  and  the  suffer- 
ing of  many  deceptions  from  his  father-in-law 
were  a  righteous  retribution  for  the  gross  deceit 
by  which  he  won  the  blessing  from  the  aged 
Isaac. 

Rahab  is  quoted  and  commended  both  by 
James  and  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, but  it  is  her  faith,  not  her  falsehood,  that 
is  praised.  She.  believed  in  Jehovah  and  in  Israel 


310       THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

as  his  covenant  people,  and  for  their  sake  was 
willing  to  surrender  home  and  friends  and  coun- 
try. So  she  welcomed  and  preserved  the  spies, 
and  sent  them  home  "another  way,"  Jas.  2:25, 
and  in  so  far  was  conspicuous  for  well-doing. 
But  her  deliberate  falsehood  was  a  remnant  of  her 
heathen  training,  for  which  no  palliation  is  given 
or  is  possible.  Born  and  brought  up  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  deceit,  it  doubtless  seemed  to  her  a  very 
natural  thing  to  lie  in  a  good  cause.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  Jael.  It  was  a  good  thing  in  her 
to  drive  the  tent-pin  through  the  temples  of  the 
sleeping  Sisera.  In  so  doing  she  executed  a 
proper  retribution  upon  an  enemy  of  the  Lord, 
she  took  sides  with  the  covenant  people,  and  did 
what  lay  in  her  power  to  render  their  victory 
complete  and  permanent.  For  this  she  received 
the  highly-wrought  encomium  of  Deborah,  and 
was  pronounced  u  blessed  above  women,"  or,  as 
some  render  the  phrase,  u blessed  by  women." 
But  her  treachery  in  inviting  Sisera  into  her  tent 
and  her  assurance  to  him  of  safety  were  detesta- 
ble. These  gross  violations  of  truth  detract  much 
from  her  character,  and  yet  leave  the  signal  ser- 
vice she  rendered  to  Israel  unimpaired  as  an  act 
of  heroic  fidelity  to  the  side  of  right.  She  took  a 
wrong  way  to  do  a  right  thing,  and  the  singers  of 
the  triumph  overlook  her  deceit  and  her  breach 


THE   OIvD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.         311 

of  hospitality  in  their  hatred  of  the  licentious  and 
cruel  tyrant  and  their  warm  sympathy  with  their 
country  rescued  from  idolatry  and  degradation. 

The  case  of  Jephthah  is  different.  He  is  com- 
mended as  a  hero  of  faith,  and  such  he  was  in 
taking  command  of  the  people  at  a  perilous  peri- 
od, in  his  wise  conduct  of  the  war,  and  in  his  tri- 
umphant victory.  The  one  stain  upon  him  is  the 
sacrifice  of  his  only  child.  He  vowed  to  God 
that  in  case  of  victory  lit  would  "offer  up  for  a 
burnt-offering"  whatsoever  came  forth  from  his 
house  to  meet  him  on  his  return.  His  daughter 
came  forth,  and  "he  did  with  her  according  to 
his  vow."  Some  have  praised  him  for  his  self- 
renunciation  in  keeping  his  vow.  All  such  praise 
is  nearly  as  odious  as  Jephthah' s  course.  His 
deed  was  an  immorality,  and  denounced  as  such 
in  the  law.  The  vo\v  itself  was  wrong,  for  no 
man  has  a  right  to  take  upon  himself  such  an 
uncertain  obligation;  but  the  performance  of  it 
was  worse,  for  it  degraded  the  offerer  of  the  vic- 
tim to  a  level  with  those  Canaanites  whom  his 
ancestors  had  driven  out  of  existence  with  fire 
and  sword.  Jephthah  had  been  living  as  a  free 
lance  on  the  frontiers  of  the  country  amid  demor- 
alizing associations,  and  this  fact,  while  it  ac- 
counts for  his  crude  notion  that  any  circumstances 
could  make  it  right  to  do  wrong,  also  sets  in  a 


312        THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   VINDICATED. 

brighter  light  his  wise  and  determined  and  suc- 
cessful leadership  of  his  countrymen  against  the 
national  foe. 

Samson's  case  is  similar.  He  was  a  combina- 
tion of  superhuman  physical  strength  with  un- 
common moral  weakness.  God  saw  fit  to  employ 
him  as  a  deliverer  of  his  people,  just  as  centuries 
afterwards  he  commissioned  the  weak,  bigoted, 
and  petulant  Jonah.  In  general,  the  channels  of 
divine  energy  are  appropriate  to  their  office,  and 
clean  men  bear  the  vessels  of  the  L,ord;  but  there 
are  exceptions  for  wise  purposes,  one  of  which 
may  be  "to  vindicate  or  illustrate  the  divine  sov- 
ereignty. But  whatever  the  reasons,  it  is  certain 
that  God  endowed  with  miraculous  might  a  man 
who  never  could  resist  the  solicitations  of  a  wo- 
man, but  did  in  reality  the  shameful  things  fable 
records  of  Hercules  with  Omphale.  His  exploits 
in  battle,  when  single-handed  he  contended  with 
hundreds  and  thousands,  were  signal  expressions 
of  his  faith  in  God;  and  the  same  is  true  of  his 
death  at  Gaza.  That  death  was  no  more  suicide 
than  that  of  any  soldier  who  leads  or  takes  part 
in  a  forlorn  hope.  He  performed  an  act  of  retrib- 
utive vengeance  upon  the  national  foes,  and  the 
sacrifice  of  his  own  life  which  it  required  was 
freely  made,  and  stands  evermore  as  a  testimony 
of  his  self- renouncing  fidelity.  Much  of  his  life 


THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.        313 

had  been  wasted,  but  what  was  left  of  it  he  dedi- 
cated to  God.  Having  been  restored  once  more 
to  his  gigantic  strength,  by  one  supreme  effort  he 
pulled  down  the  temple  and  carried  a  host  of  his 
oppressors  into  a  common  grave.  He  asked  and 
he  received  divine  help,  and  justly  is  his  feat  cel- 
ebrated as  an  act  of  faith  as  well  as  of  strength. 

The  shortcomings  of  David,  his  deceptions, 
his  severities  to  the  heathen,  his  misleading  of 
Bath-sheba,  and  his  murder  of  Uriah,  have  often 
been  brought  forward  as  a  strange  commentary 
upon  the  phrase  applied  to  him  alone  of  all  the 
servants  of  the  Lord  that  he  was  "  the  man  after 
God's  own  heart."  But  the  taunt  is  undeserved. 
The  phrase  as  it  occurs  in  Scripture,  i  Sam. 
13  : 14  ;  Acts  13  :  22,  was  used  to  denote  his  prompt 
and  unswerving  obedience,  "which  shall  fulfil  all 
my  will,"  and  in  the  main  was  amply  justified  by 
his  life,  both  personal  and  official.  Herein  he 
was  a  marked  contrast  to  his  predecessor,  the  bold 
and  intrepid  but  wayward  and  self-willed  Saul, 
who  on  two  signal  occasions  violated  an  express 
divine  command  addressed  to  himself.  The  son 
of  Jesse  during  a  long  and  varied  career  served 
the  Lord  with  peculiar  assiduity  and  success,  and 
often  when  it  cost  him  a  severe  struggle.  But  to 
his  general  course  of  implicit,  real,  and  cheerful 
obedience  there  were  the  sad  and  painful  excep- 


314        THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

tions  which  have  been  referred  to.  It  is  not  a 
sufficient  answer  to  these  to  say  with  Mr.  Carlyle, 
"  What  are  faults,  what  are  the  outward  details 
of  a  life,  if  the  inner  secret  of  it,  the  remorse, 
temptations,  the  often-baffled,  never-ended  strug- 
gle of  it,  be  forgotten?"  No  doubt  David  did 
repent  bitterly,  and  the  expression  of  that  repent- 
ance in  the  fifty-first  Psalm  has  been  of  untold 
value  to  all  succeeding  generations,  as  it  will  be 
for  ages  to  come.  But  the  great  point  to  be  borne 
in  mind  in  regard  to  these  sins  is  that  they  were 
in  no  sense  normal  results  of  his  character  and 
training,  but  exceptions.  And  for  these  the  Old 
Testament  is  not  responsible.  It  is  expressly  said 
of  the  whole  wretched  dealing  with  Uriah  and 
his  wife,  "But  the  thing  that  David  had  done 
displeased  the  Lord,"  2  Sam.  n  :  27.  The  record 
has  its  value  as  showing  how  men  that  are  emi- 
nent for  gifts  natural  and  acquired,  and  who  sus- 
tain lofty  positions  and  perform  great  public  ser- 
vices, may  fall  and  cover  themselves  with  shame; 
but  if  so,  it  is  not  because  of  their  faith  but  in 
spite  of  it.  The  Lord's  honor  therefore  is  not 
tarnished  by  the  derelictions  of  his  people,  and 
the  fact  that  instead  of  being  quietly  suppressed 
they  are  spread  upon  the  pages  of  Holy  Writ  de- 
monstrates the  trustworthiness  of  that  book.  The 
sins  themselves  illustrate  the  weakness  of  human 


THE    OLD   TESTAMENT   VINDICATED.         315 

nature  when  left  to  itself,  and  impress  upon  every 
reader  the  necessity  of  constant  watchfulness  and 
care.  If  the  man  after  God's  own  heart  fell  so 
sadly  and  shamefully,  who  of  all  the  sons  of  men 
dare  boast  and  be  confident  ? 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  all  these  cases  belong 
to  an  early  stage  in  the  application  of  moral  prin- 
ciples to  practical  life.  This  does  not  mean  that 
there  was  a  progress  in  ethical  ideas,  just  as  there 
was  a  progress  in  doctrine  all  through  the  old 
economy.  There  was  no  such  ethical  progress 
and  no  room  for  it.  This  is  shown  not  only  by 
the  Decalogue,  which  was  certainly  given  from 
Sinai,  and  the  many  admirable  provisions  of  the 
enactments  accompanying  it,  but  also  by  the  fact 
that  the  cardinal  principles  of  morals  have  always 
and  everywhere  been  the  same.  Falsehood,  fraud, 
slander,  envy,  theft,  breach  of  trust,  and  murder 
are  not  more  peremptorily  forbidden  by  Scripture 
than  they  are  by  the  common  judgment  of  civil- 
ized nations,  ancient  and  modern.  No  revelation 
was  needed  to  tell  men  that  these  things  were 
wrong.  In  the  last  century  one  of  the  Moravians 
who  labored  among  the  aborigines  of  our  country 
said  to  a  Mohegan  chief,  "  You  must  not  lie  nor 
steal  nor  get  drunk,"  etc.,  and  received  the  indig- 
nant answer,  "Thou  fool,  dost  thou  think  that 


3l6        THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   VINDICATED. 

we  do  not  know  that?"*  The  superiority  of 
Christian  ethics  lies  mainly  in  the  example  it  fur- 
nishes and  the  motives  it  offers,  and  only  to  a 
small  extent  in  the  precepts  it  enjoins,  as,  e.  g., 
in  relation  to  the  obligations  of  the  sexes.  Our 
Saviour's  object  in  a  large  part  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  is  not  to  correct  the  morality  of  the 
law,  but  to  set  aside  the  corrupt  glosses  which 
the  degenerate  Jews  had  fastened  upon  it.  Take 
away  these  incrustations,  and  the  moral  code  of 
Sinai  shines  out  as  conspicuously  pure  and  eleva- 
ted as  the  utterances  of  our  Lord.  The  Master 
did  indeed  a  wonderful  thing  when  he  condensed 
the  Ten  Commandments  into  two,  the  love  of 
God  as  supreme  and  the  love  of  our  neighbor  as 
ourselves;  but  nowhere  and  at  no  time  did  he  set 
aside  or  impeach  any  one  of  the  ten  words  uttered 
from  the  blazing  summit  of  Jebel  Mousa.  On 
the  contrary,  when  the  young  ruler  asked  the 
weighty  question,  "What  shall  I  do  that  I  may 
have  eternal  life?"  the  answer  came  promptly, 
"If  thou  wouldest  enter  into  life,  keep  the  com- 
mandments," Matt.  19:17.  No  rational  expla- 
nation of  this  utterance  can  be  made  which  will 
not  imply  that  those  commandments  cover  the 
whole  sphere  of  human  duty. , 

But  while  all  this  is  true,  it  is  also  true  that 

#  Loskiel's"  History  of  Moravian  Missions  in  North  America." 


THE  oivD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.      317 

the  ethical  principles  lying  at  the  basis  of  the 
Mosaic  economy  were  not  at  once  taken  up  into 
the  hearts  of  the  people  and  incorporated  with 
their  lives.  It  required  time  to  bring  about  this 
result,  just  as  it  did  in  some  other  things.  For 
example,  idol  worship  was  always  condemned 
among  the  Hebrews.  Yet  when  Jacob  left  Pa- 
dan-aram,  Rachel  stole  and  carried  off  her  father's 
teraphim  (household  deities),  Gen.  31:34;  when  the 
patriarch  himself  went  from  Shechem  to  Bethel 
he  needed  to  tell  his  family,  "Put  away  the 
strange  gods  that  are  among  you,"  Gen.  35:2; 
and  as  far  down  as  Saul's  days  we  find  that  when 
Michal  wished  to  deceive  her  father's  messengers 
by  pretending  that  David  was  sick,  she  used  tera- 
pJiim  to  represent  the  appearance  of  his  form  in 
the  bed,  thus  showing  that  these  idolatrous  ima- 
ges had  a  place  even  in  this  good  man's  dwelling. 
So  in  the  days  of  Israel's  imperfect  civilization, 
when  there  was  more  or  less  of  the  moral  chaos 
that  always  accompanies  sudden  changes,  social 
revolutions,  alternations  of  war  and  peace,  of  con- 
quest and  defeat,  the  development  of  character 
was  not  uniform;  excellences  in  one  direction 
were  overbalanced  by  deficiencies  in  another;  and 
even  those  who  in  the  main  were  upright  accord- 
ing to  the  divine  standard,  yet  occasionally  fell 
short  in  the  hour  of  trial.  A  capital  illustration 


31 3        THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  VINDICATED. 

may  be  drawn  from  the  experience  of  modern 
Christian  missions.  One  of  the  evangelical  de- 
nominations of  our  country  has  in  the  extreme 
.Bast  two  thousand  members  in  full  communion 
and  eight  thousand  persons  known  as  u  adhe- 
rents. n  Recently  two  of  the  wisest  and  most 
experienced  of  the  missionaries  laboring  there 
were  asked  how  many  of  these  adherents  they 
supposed  to  be  really  converted  persons.  The  an- 
swer was,  " Nearly  all  of  them."  Whereupon 
the  question  arose  why,  that  being  the  case,  they 
were  not  received  into  the  fellowship  of  the  church 
and  acknowledged  as  brethren  in  the  Lord.  The 
reason  given  was  that  they  retained  so  much  of 
their  old  heathen  habits  and  tendencies,  and  their 
stability  under  the  pressure  of  temptation  was  so 
imperfect,  that  there  was  reason  to  fear  a  relapse 
into  some  gross  immorality  that  would  bring  great 
discredit  upon  the  Christian  name.  Hence  they 
were  retained  so  long  in  this  inchoate  disciplinary 
status.  Precisely  this  was  the  condition  of  many 
of  the  Old  Testament  worthies.  The  standard  of 
duty  was  as  high  as  it  ever  has  been;  witness  the 
command  given  as  far  back  as  the  days  of  Abra- 
ham, "Walk  before  me  and  be  thou  perfect, " 
Gen.  17:1,  and  oftentimes  there  was  a  wondrous 
exhibition  of  moral  excellence;  witness  him  who 
walked  with  God  so  closely  and  continuously  that 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  VINDICATED.        319 

lie  was  translated  without  seeing  death,  or  Sam- 
uel, the  early  called,  who  at  the  close  of  a  long 
public  life  was  able  to  challenge  a  whole  people 
to  make  good  any  charge  of  wrong-doing;  but 
still,  as  a  general  fact,  true  believers  had  not 
grown  up  to  their  privileges,  and  often  fell  into 
that  which  was  clearly  and  sometimes  grossly 
amiss. 

Nor  is  it  without  reason  that  the  record  of 
such  things  has  been  preserved  in  a  book  designed 
for  universal  and  perpetual  use.  For  it  has  been 
well  said  that  in  the  history  of  individuals  and  of 
nations,  as  of  the  race,  there  is  a  time  when  the 
delivery  of  truth  in  forms  as  elementary  and  com- 
paratively rude  as  those  found  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment seems  to  be  essential  to  the  spiritual  train- 
ing of  character.  To  this  day  it  is  known  that 
some  of  the  narratives  and  practices  of  the  old 
economy  give  to  heathen  nations  a  clearer  idea  of 
the  divine  holiness  and  of  human  duty  than  even 
the  more  full  disclosures  of  the  new. 


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